Water protectors continue to fight criminal charges more than three years after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrested dozens of people resisting the construction of the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory. In January 2024, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Michael Tammen found Sleydo’ (Molly Wickham), Shaylynn Sampson and Corey Jocko guilty of criminal contempt of court for blocking pipeline construction in defiance of a court order. Sleydo’ is a Wet’suwet’en Wing Chief of Cas Yikh house and spokesperson for Gidimt’en Checkpoint. Sampson and Jocko are from the Gitxsan and Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) nations.
In December, they concluded another phase of court hearings seeking to have their charges stayed or dismissed based on abuse of process connected to rights violations by the RCMP. In November 2021, dozens of RCMP officers raided the blockade, including tactical units armed with rifles and dogs. Officers used chainsaws to break down the doors of two cabins, joked about beating and gassing water protectors, and mocked water protectors over open radio channels. Police even detained water protectors for several days in punitive and inhumane conditions. RCMP Superintendent Elliott admitted that the officers’ behaviour was “unprofessional and unacceptable.”
The RCMP task force deployed the “Community-Industry Response Group” (C-IRG), a unit established in 2017 tasked to police protests against resource extraction. Between 2019 and 2022, the RCMP’s Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) received over 500 complaints about C-IRG. The CRCC’s review of these complaints condemned C-IRG’s practice of establishing checkpoints and “exclusion zones” to restrict public access to resistance sites. Still, it did not substantively address multiple recorded instances of police brutality. Due to public pressure, in 2023, the CRCC launched an investigation into C-IRG’s governance, structure and operations. Following the investigation, C-IRG was renamed the “Critical Response Unit” and granted an expanded mandate to police “civil and public order events.”
Negotiations between Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and the Canadian government on the core issues of sovereignty and governance remain unfinished. The Canadian government seeks an agreement that extinguishes Wet’suwet’en sovereignty claims, while the hereditary chiefs seek recognition of their sovereignty and jurisdiction.
Please pray for:
- Healing for water protectors traumatized by police brutality
- An end to the criminalization of water protectors
- Good faith negotiations toward agreements that recognize Wet’suwet’en sovereignty
- The growth and resilience of Indigenous sovereignty and eco-justice movements
- A policy shift away from fossil fuel development and toward conservation and locally led sustainable development
