On 17 October 2016, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested nine people as they attempted to blockade the site of an $11 billion hydroelectric dam in Labrador. Protests have escalated against the controversial Muskrat Falls project, which is slated to generate a wealth of renewable energy for the Atlantic provinces — but locals fear it will poison their food supply downstream. A group of about 20 people defied a court-ordered injunction and blocked workers from entering the construction site before daybreak. Arrests came just hours before a group of about 25 protesters staged a sit-in at Newfoundland and Labrador premier Dwight Ball's office. The office shut down for the day shortly after the sit-in began. "The police officer arrested someone on the peaceful protest site who was making some verbal remarks about poisoning and methyl-mercury, and so one of the arrests we feel was very unlawful," Andrea Andersen, an Inuit protester, said of the ninth arrest. She said the officer arrested the woman because she stepped onto the highway, but others were also on the road.