The decision to charge Sleydo’, also known as Molly Wickham, and three other protesters was formally announced in BC Supreme Court in Prince George on Thursday. Sleydo’ — who is Wet’suwet’en — lives with her family on traditional land near the pipeline construction area of the 670 km Coastal GasLink pipeline, which is being built across northern B.C. to feed an LNG export facility. Although the company signed benefit agreements with 20 elected band councils along the project’s route in 2018, several Wet’suwet’en heritage leaders say band councils have no authority in traditional areas beyond reserve boundaries.
Wet’suwet’en ground
Sleydo’ has been the public face of a high-profile indigenous rights movement and a spokesperson for the people who call themselves land defenders and water protectors. They oppose the construction of the Coastal GasLink project on behalf of several Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, who have not given their consent for the pipeline to pass through their territory, about 300 km northwest of Prince George, which is about 780 km northeast of Vancouver. Sleydo’ was one of more than a dozen people arrested in November 2021 during an RCMP crackdown to dismantle the Wet’suwet’en blockades that Coastal GasLink said had trapped 500 workers in a pipeline camp. Wet’suwet’en members and supporters issued an enforcement notice to “evict” Coast GasLink from traditional areas on November 14, 2021. RCMP arrested more than two dozen protesters later in the month. (Submitted by Layla Staats) Last month, the Crown announced criminal contempt charges against 15 people, but said it would take another month to decide whether Sleydo’ and several others should also be prosecuted for defying the court order. The Crown has now decided to prosecute a total of 19 people, including Sleydo’. Among those now facing criminal contempt charges are Shaylynn Sampson, a Gitxsan woman with Wet’suwet’en family ties, and two prominent members of the Land Back movement, Skyler Williams and Corey Jocko. Williams, a prominent Haudenosaunee representative for the Land Back 1492 movement, traveled to the Wet’suwet’en region to support the hereditary chiefs along with a handful of other Haudenosaunee from Six Nations, near Hamilton, about 70 km southwest of Toronto and Akwesasne , located on the Canada-US border about 120 km west of Montreal. Skyler Williams, representative of the 1492 Land Back Lane camp, will face criminal contempt charges in BC after his arrest during an Indigenous land rights standoff with Coast GasLink in 2021. He is lit here in 2020 — during of the occupation of 1492 Land Back of a proposed housing subdivision in Ontario. (Evan Mitsui/CBC) Jocko, according to an RCMP court affidavit, “is believed to be a Mohawk member of the Six Nations Haudenosaunee Confederacy from Ontario.” The court heard last year that Jocko’s fiancée, Jocelyn Alec, is the daughter of Hereditary Chief Wet’suwet’en Woos, head of the Gidimt’en tribe, who is also known as Frank Alec. The court also heard that Jocelyn Alec and Jocko lived in a cabin on Wet’suwet’en traditional territory and that Jocko identifies as Wetsuwet’en. Jocelyn Alec was also arrested last year but will not be criminally charged, according to the Crown.
Criminal prosecutions
In April, Justice Marguerite Church called on the BC Attorney’s Office to consider bringing criminal charges against the people arrested last year, after a series of blockades and protests destroyed roads and bridges near the pipeline. Church noted that the protests were “escalating.”
Kevin O’Callaghan, a lawyer for Coast GasLink, argued that the protesters arrested in November deliberately violated a court order to stay away from the pipeline’s construction zone, knowing their defiance would receive widespread public attention.
“There was extensive use of mainstream media and social media to draw attention to the actions of the protesters,” Church noted.
Half a dozen of those arrested last year will not face criminal charges, according to the BC Crown.
The Crown said there was insufficient evidence that RCMP or Coastal GasLink security guards read them the full court order before they were arrested.
In court today, Coast GasLink asked for three weeks to decide whether to proceed with civil contempt charges against those the Crown declined to prosecute.
