Justice Michael Tammen of the B.C .Supreme Court will make a decision in February on an abuse of process hearing for three people arrested for blocking work on the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline.
Tammen heard the abuse of process application brought by Sleydo’ (Molly Wickham), a wing chief of the Gidimt’en Clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, Shaylynn Sampson, a Gitxsan woman with Wet’suwet’en family ties and Corey Jocko, who is Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) from Akwesasne, in B.C. Supreme Court in Smithers.
Tammen found the three guilty in January of criminal contempt of court for breaking an injunction against blocking work on the pipeline.
The abuse of process application alleges RCMP used excessive force while arresting the accused in November 2021, and that the group was treated unfairly while in custody. It asks the judge to stay the criminal contempt of court charges or to reduce their sentences based on their treatment by police.
Crown counsel finished its closing arguments in the case Friday, saying the application fails to meet the bar for a stay in proceedings and the charter rights of the accused have not been breached.
Crown lawyer Paul Battin said despite arguments from the defence counsel this was a violent police action, there was rationale behind the conduct of police.
“At the end of the day what we have to look at with the large number of people that were involved in this situation, there were no fatalities, there were no injuries,” said Battin.
Battin also said police aren’t hiding from bad behavior conducted by some officers during the enforcement, referring to audio recordings played in court, where RCMP officers can be heard mocking Sleydo’ and Sampson for having red hand prints painted over their mouths — a symbol for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
Battin said the names of two of the officers that made these comments are known to the accused and they can choose to make a complaint to RCMP about it, and that these court proceedings are not the only avenue to have this incident remedied.
Battin said the bad behaviour of these officers is not a reflection of the conduct of the entire police operation.
RCMP responding to emergency
Battin said there wasn’t time for RCMP to plan the operation perfectly because it was responding to an emergency, due to CGL workers being trapped behind the blockades at a camp without access to food, water and medical supplies and preventing sewage removal.
The defence counsel argued police needed a warrant to enter the structure it where it arrested the accused.
During the arrests on Nov. 19, Sleydo’ and Sampson were located in a small structure, referred to as the tiny house. Jocko was arrested in a structure often referred to in court as the cabin.
However, Crown lawyer Kathryn Costain argued the purpose of the structures were to obstruct CGL operations, and failed to meet the bar for a reasonable expectation of privacy, which would require RCMP to obtain a warrant to enter the structures.
In replies to the Crown’s closing arguments defence lawyer Fances Mahon said that it was clear that one of the purposes of the structures was to block the work of CGL but that this is an over simplification of the situation, and ignores the Wet’suwet’en right to their unceded territory.
“They were there in the context of their unextinguished title and their traditional use of that same area and much of the daily life of coyote camp reflects that,” said Mahon.
Tammen will read his decision on the hearing Feb. 18.