The sentencing hearing for three Coastal GasLink pipeline opponents gets underway tomorrow (Oct. 15) in Smithers.
Sleydo' (Molly Wickham), Shaylynn Sampson, and Corey “Jayohcee” Jocko, were arrested in November 2021 for defying a B.C. Supreme Court injunction by blocking access to a Coastal GasLink worksite near Houston.
In January 2024, Justice Michael Tammen found the three guilty of criminal contempt. In a subsequent abuse of process application, Tammen found the RCMP had violated the defendants' constitutional rights by using excessive force and using racist epithets during the arrest.
Nevertheless, he said the violation did not meet the threshold for voiding the charges and instead said he would consider reduced sentences.
"The ruling validates both the experiences of these land defenders and the broader experience of colonial violence that Indigenous Peoples have faced for more than 100 years from the RCMP," said Amnesty International in a press release issued this morning (Oct. 14).
Amnesty has taken an active role in this case, showing up for past hearings in Smithers.
The organization said it's not just the defendants' treatment that is unconstitutional.
"Amnesty International’s research has concluded that the injunction order unduly restricts the human rights of the land defenders and the Indigenous rights of the Wet’suwet’en Nation. By extension, the arrests and prosecution of the land defenders represent a serious violation of their rights," the press release stated.
The release also said a delegation of representatives from Amnesty International Canada’s English-speaking section, the organization’s Americas Regional Office, and the Canadian office of Peace Brigades International (PBI-Canada) will attend the sentencing this week.
It said they are prepared to declare Sleydo, Sampson, and Jocko prisoners of conscience should they receive jail or house arrest sentences.
This would only be the second time Amnesty has given the designation to persons in Canada.
In July 2024, Tammen sentenced Chief Dsta’hyl (Adam Gagnon), a wing chief of the Wet'suwet'en Likhts’amisyu Clan, to 60 days house arrest for criminal contempt for similarly violating the same court injunction.
“Time after time, Canada keeps privileging the interests of wealthy investors and giant corporations over the lives and rights of Indigenous Peoples and the natural environment that everyone – not just Indigenous Peoples – depend on," said Chief Na’Moks (John Ridsdale), of the Wet’suwet’en Tsayu Clan.
"How can the Canadian state claim to champion human rights, let alone reconciliation, when it physically assaults and criminalizes Indigenous defenders speaking out for justice?”
The sentencing hearing is scheduled for three days.
