The RCMP says it expected to face a higher threat when officers moved in last week to clear barricades blocking construction of a natural gas pipeline in northern British Columbia.

Social media “rhetoric” from supporters of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs — who say the Coastal GasLink (CGL) project does not have their consent to cross the territory — led planners to believe they would face fiercer resistance, the RCMP said in a statement to CBC News. 

“Our threat assessment … had been heightened by publicly available rhetoric on social media by the protesters calling for ‘war,’ which was a change from previous protests in the