A mother and daughter protesting construction work on a new subdivision in T’Sou-ke First Nation say one of their supporters was attacked by more than a dozen people frustrated by their protest.
Kati George-Jim has been more than 100 feet up in a Sitka spruce since Aug. 31 protesting development of a new subdivision in a forested area that she considers sacred. George-Jim said the work threatens coastal wetland habitat that is a key place of cultural practice for their people.
Her mother, kQwa’st’not, has been sitting on the side of McMillan Road, which leads to the worksite, but not blocking the way, kQwa’st’not said.
The two were served an injunction last week obtained by the band council ordering them to stop obstructing work, after they spent two weeks blocking the worksite. Work resumed following the injunction.
Tensions have been high in the small community since the protest began, with neighbours threatening and harassing the two, George-Jim said.
The situation escalated Tuesday, when, they said, a group of community members attacked a close family friend who was visiting kQwa’st’not and George-Jim.
kQwa’st’not said she saw a group swarm her friend, yelling profanities and trying to bait the elder into fighting.
“I could see pushing and punching and kneeing. I saw this uncle get pushed to one side of the road into the ditch,” kQwa’st’not said. When he got up, he was pushed down again into a ditch, she said.
Eventually, he managed to free himself and walked to the bottom of the road, where kQwa’st’not was holding vigil. He began to throw up there, she said.
An ambulance responded and assessed the man, and he chose not to go to the hospital, she said.
George-Jim said it’s frightening to see the violence in the community she grew up in.
“This is the forest where I grew up. My house is less than a five-minute walk. I’m nearby everyone that I’ve known my entire life,” she said.
kQwa’st’not said police responded to the incident but she did not see anyone taken into custody.
Sooke RCMP said they had no details to share about the incident.
T’Souke Nation has obtained $11.4 million from Indigenous Services Canada to build a gravity sanitary sewer collection system and wastewater pump station that would bring raw sewage from 53 homes on the reserve to the District of Sooke’s wastewater treatment plant.
The infrastructure upgrades would also support a new 22-lot subdivision of single and multi-family residential units.
T’Sou-ke Chief Gordon Planes has said there is a housing shortage in T’Sou-ke Nation and that studies and consultation on the project have been going on for years.
Since 2016, the band has commissioned four environmental studies and one archeological study for the project and it maintains that no existing wetlands would be drained and filled.
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