A B.C. Supreme Court judge said Friday, Dec. 13 in Smithers that he would deliver his decision in just over two months on whether to stay the charges against three anti-pipeline protesters convicted in January of criminal contempt of court.
Justice Michael Tammen set Feb. 18 for his oral decision in the case of Wet’suwet'en Nation’s Molly Wickham (aka Sleydo’), Gitxsan member Shaylynn Sampson and Corey Jocko, a Mohawk from Akwesasne.
Their lawyer, Frances Mahon, told the court in the final day of closing arguments that the defendants’ constitutional rights had been breached by RCMP officers when they were arrested and detained on Nov. 19, 2021 for disrupting Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline construction.
Their actions contravened a December 2019-granted court injunction and their supporters consider them “land defenders,” allies of Wetʼsuwetʼen hereditary chiefs opposed to a project that is favoured by elected band councillors. The hereditary chiefs’ protest campaign reached a peak in early 2020 with highway and rail blockades across Canada.
The protest activity delayed, but did not stop, completion of the 670-kilometre pipeline from Dawson Creek to the LNG Canada plant in Kitimat.
Mahon reiterated the purposes of the Coyote Camp, the centre of the protest. While it was obvious the participants aimed to interfere with pipeline work, Mahon said it would be an “oversimplification to say that was their sole purpose.”
“They were not there just to halt CGL’s work,” Mahon said. “They were there in the context of their unextinguished title, and their traditional use of that same area, and much of the daily life at Coyote Camp reflects that.”
Mahon said that the Wet'suwet'en resistance to the pipeline “needs to be placed within the broader context of the nation's ancient connection and use and occupancy in the land and their efforts to re-establish a traditional way of life.”
Earlier, Crown lawyer Paul Battin said the alleged Charter of Rights and Freedoms breaches had not been proven and the matter was “not one of the clearest of cases in which a stay of proceedings should be granted.”
Battin also said it is also a crucial case for the concept of court orders. Without the judges and their formal orders being respected, “the entire system begins to crumble.”
“If we don’t have authority for court orders, what happens is that no one respects anybody or anything going on from that, and this court order in this case isn't just about an injunction, this court order is about every other court order,” Battin said. “Every court order that protects somebody from somebody else is at stake. Any court order that requires someone to make payments for the benefit of their child is at stake.”
Battin accused the defence of framing the case as an “inquest into the C-IRG,” the RCMP’s 2017-established Community-Industry Response Group specialized squad.
Last January, C-IRG rebranded and reorganized as the B.C. Critical Response Unit almost a year after the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP began investigating C-IRG.
Battin said that, even if Tammen finds Charter breaches happened, “it doesn't mean that there has to be a stay of proceedings entered. A just remedy can still be crafted.”
“This was about respecting a court order put in place to allow legally obtained construction permits to be actualized, and Justice [Marguerite] Church did not make this decision on a whim,” Battin said. “This was a decision that was carefully thought out, and her reasons reflect that.”
CGL is now in commercial service. In November, CGL parent TC Energy estimated final project costs remain at $14.5 billion and it continues to pursue cost recoveries from contractors.
“As LNG Canada has indicated, it remains on track to deliver first cargoes by the middle of 2025,” TC Energy said.
