The Premier says yesterday’s events at the BC Legislature were troubling and unprecedented.

John Horgan says peaceful dissent to government policy is important, but says that dissent can’t get in the way of other people’s liberty.

He commented on how United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, signed last fall by his government, may have related the events yesterday.

“When we try to address the complex issues of hereditary leadership within Wet’suwet’en territory, when we try to come to terms with what the declaration means going forward, I think we need to remind ourselves this is not an event, this is a process. 150 years of colonization will not be eliminated by the passage of a piece of legislation.”

Horgan says he understand discontent of the Coastal GasLink pipeline project in northern B.C., but says it is in the best interest of the province in the long-term.

“The vast majority of those nations are anxious to have the prosperity that other British Columbians have experienced for 150 years. And that overwhelming majority is my focus. I absolutely understand the discontent and disappointment of some, but I can’t let that get in the way of moving forward on what I believe is in the best interest of British Columbia long term.”

He also says he expects to talk in the next 24 hours with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the federal government role in the pipeline project, which will transport liquified natural gas from the Peace Region to the new $40-billion-dollar LNG plant in Kitimat once it’s built.