B.C. Mounties say they are monitoring protest against gas pipeline

The RCMP say they are investigating allegations that protesters threatened security officials, set off flares and damaged vehicles at a drill site for the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern British Columbia.

The Mounties say in a statement released Monday that officers were called to the site along a forest service road near Houston on Sunday.

They say anyone blocking worker access to the area is in breach of a court-ordered injunction.

Opposition to the pipeline project among Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs sparked rallies and rail blockades across Canada last year.

The elected council of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation and others in the area have approved the pipeline, which would transport natural gas from Dawson Creek to Kitimat.

A statement from a group called the Gidimt’en Checkpoint says an area known as Coyote Camp has been reoccupied and an eviction notice that was issued to the company by the hereditary chiefs last year has been enforced.

Members of the Gidimt’en clan, one of five in the Wet’suwet’en Nation, had re-established blockades last month before several people were arrested while protesting construction of the 670-kilometre natural gas pipeline,