Defence will push to stay the verdicts based on alleged RCMP rights violations as hearings continue in ‘Smithers’ next week
Three Indigenous land defenders charged more than two years ago with defying a court order have been found guilty of criminal contempt in B.C. Supreme Court.
Justice Michael Tammen, who delivered his decision Friday morning, will now consider an application by all three to stay the charges based on alleged misconduct by RCMP officers during the arrests, which occurred along the Coastal GasLink pipeline route in Wet’suwet’en territory on Nov. 19, 2021. The hearing began following the verdict.
“There can be no doubt that Sleydo’, in occupying the metal structure on Nov. 19, 2021, knew that her actions would tend to depreciate the authority of the court,” Tammen said, adding that two others arrested the same day and standing trial this week were defying the order and “reckless” in blocking access to the pipeline route.
Criminal contempt penalties can include fines or imprisonment.
Sleydo’, who also goes by Molly Wickham, is a member of the Gidimt’en Clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation and a prominent figure in the years-long dispute over the controversial project. She was previously arrested on Jan. 7, 2019, the first of several high-profile police actions since the B.C. Supreme Court granted the injunction five years ago.
On Nov. 19, 2021, Sleydo’ and Shaylynn Sampson, who is from the Gitxsan Nation, were among eight people arrested while inside a small metal structure, or “tiny house,” located next to the Marten Forest Service Road in an area Coastal GasLink intended to use for storing pipe. Also arrested inside the structure were two journalists, one of whom, Amber Bracken, is now suing the RCMP over her arrest and detention.
Several other people, including Corey Jocko, who is Haudenosaunee, were arrested in a separate structure located on a nearby worksite where Coastal GasLink was preparing to drill under the Morice River, the court heard this week. Known in the Wet’suwet’en language as Wedzin Kwa, concerns about impacts to the waterway have been central to the nation’s opposition to the pipeline project.