Trial of prominent Wet'suwet'en leader and pipeline opponents begins
Three accused are charged with criminal contempt over Coastal GasLink pipeline blockades
The trial is underway for three people charged with criminal contempt for breaking a court order forbidding them from blocking access to the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
Among the accused is Sleydo', also known as Molly Wickham, who has been the public face of a high-profile Indigenous land rights movement. She is a Wing Chief of Cas Yikh, a house group of the Gidimt'en Clan of the Wet'suwet'en Nation.
Sleydo' stands trial alongside Shaylynn Sampson, a Gitxsan woman with Wet'suwet'en family ties; and Corey Jocko, who is Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) from Akwesasne, which straddles the Quebec, Ontario and New York state borders.
The three appeared in B.C. Supreme Court in Smithers, B.C., on Monday to face one charge each of criminal contempt of court related to arrests made during a police raid to enforce the pipeline injunction in November 2021. They each pleaded not guilty. Justice Michael Tammen is hearing the case.
Coastal GasLink was contracted to build the 670-kilometre pipeline to carry natural gas across northern British Columbia to a terminal in Kitimat, B.C., for export to Asia.
The company signed benefit agreements with 20 elected band councils along the project's route in 2018, but several Wet'suwet'en hereditary leaders refused to allow the pipeline to cross their territory.
Pipeline opponents launched a series of blockades on behalf of the hereditary leaders.
In December 2019, the B.C. Supreme Court granted Coastal GasLink an injunction barring protesters from impeding the construction.
The three accused were arrested on Nov. 19, 2021, when RCMP moved in on a camp that had been occupying a key work site.
Sleydo' and Sampson were arrested in the same cabin structure along the Morice Forest Service Road, and Jocko was arrested at a second cabin structure along the same road.
Accused seen in protest videos
The Crown called two witnesses on the first day of the trial.
The first witness was Julie Jones, a private investigator who was hired by the RCMP to collect and preserve videos posted on social media accounts run by Wet'suwet'en land defender groups, including the Gidimt'en Checkpoint, Wet'suwet'en Strong and Sovereign Likhts'amisyu.
Five of the videos saved by Jones were played at trial. Many of the videos still appear publicly on the Gidimt'en Checkpoint Facebook page and feature Sleydo'.
The second witness called to the stand was James Lank, a former RCMP officer who was a security adviser for Coastal GasLink at the time of the raids. The Crown played two videos recorded by Lank while he was on the stand.
In the first video, recorded on Sept. 25, 2021, Lank and other Coastal GasLink workers confronted people at a blockade along the Morice Forest Service Road. (CBC News heard audio of these videos but was unable to view them as there is no video feed for the trial, only a phone-in conference line.)
In response to questioning by the Crown, Lank said that Sleydo' and Sampson appear in the video.
The second video, recorded on Nov. 14, 2021, shows a confrontation between Coastal GasLink workers and people at a blockade.
The people at the blockade state the rights of the First Nation under Wet'suwet'en law to restrict unauthorized access to the land, and ask for the work to stop. Workers from Coastal GasLink then read out the 2019 injunction and ask them to clear the blockade.
Lank said that Jocko can be seen in this video.
The construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline was completed in October, but it is not yet operational.
The Crown is expected to call seven witnesses over the course of the trial, scheduled to take place over two weeks.
This is the second trial to go ahead on criminal contempt charges related to the November 2021 police raids. Sabina Dennis was acquitted on her charges by Tammen in November.
Court will resume at 10 a.m. Tuesday, with the defence set to cross-examine Lank.
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