To the SFU community and beyond,
Once again, settler-colonialism in so-called “British Columbia” has reared its ugly head, and we feel moved to express solidarity with land defenders and climate activists regarding recent events.
On February 18, 2025, the British Columbia Supreme Court (BCSC) determined that Sleydo’ (Molly Wickham), Shaylynn Sampson, and Corey Jocko would be held criminally liable for the violation of a BC government injunction order; this is despite the Court’s acknowledgment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s (RCMP) breach of their charter rights during a police raid on Wet’suwet’en territory.[1] The decision arrives after a long struggle since 2019 in which land defenders and hereditary chiefs set up blockades around Wet’suwet’en territory to prevent the construction of the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline and assert their sovereignty. In response to the blockades, CGL had requested an injunction order from the BCSC.[2] Once the injunction order was granted, the RCMP alongside Forsythe Security, a private firm contracted by CGL, surveilled, intimidated, harassed, arrested, and forcibly removed the protestors from their homelands.[3]
Despite the RCMP’s “grossly offensive, racist and dehumanizing comments,”[4] the judge did not break with colonial precedent, as the three land defenders had hoped. Instead, the only recompense to be found was in the mere possibility of their sentences being reduced – the maximum for criminal contempt being five years. Sentencing will be scheduled by the court at a later date.
Stories of this kind are unfortunately all too common in the western provinces of so-called “Canada.” Over the last decade, countless Indigenous land defenders alongside students, workers, and members of the broader community have been subject to state repression and incarceration as a result of their peaceful demonstrations in support of climate justice and against oil monopolies. For example, in 2022, SFU community members Zain Haq and Dr. Tim Takaro were similarly arrested for violating an injunction as they challenged the construction of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) Project. They find themselves in the company of hundreds of other protesters who have been arrested in the long list of pipeline struggles that have taken place in the last decade (e.g. those against the Dakota Access pipeline, the Keystone XL pipeline, or the Prince Rupert Gas Pipeline).
Since 2015, these pipeline struggles have taken place against the backdrop of Canadian politicians touting their commitment to reconciliation. Structurally, however, the reconciliation process has borne few fruits. According to the Yellowhead Institute, between 2015 and 2023, only 13 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) 94 Calls to Action had been completed.[5] With a completion rate of just 1.625 Calls to Action per year, it would take Canada over fifty years to fully implement the TRC’s recommendations.[6] Moreover, during this period, federal and provincial governments have blatantly violated Indigenous land and title rights, which encompass “the right to exclusive use and occupation of the land,”[7] as outlined in the Delgamuukw v. British Columbia court ruling.[8] Such violations were on full display when Ottawa and British Columbia decided to push ahead with the construction of the CGL pipeline project.
Injunctions are often justified as measures to protect certain parties from harm or disruption. But we must ask: who are they truly protecting? Are they safeguarding Indigenous sovereignty and the well-being of the planet, or are they serving the interests of Canada’s ruling class? Since 2018, injunctions have been used by the government of Canada and the Province of BC to undertake constant surveillance, harassment, and the forceful removal and jailing of Wet’suwet’en land defenders. These injunctions are legal orders issued by the BCSC that prohibit land defenders from protecting their sovereignty and territory. The criminalisation of Indigenous dissent through the state’s escalation of injunctions is an investment in maintaining settler-colonial authority: while land defenders are imprisoned, the real offenders remain free.
As such, we recognize blockades not only as a form of anti-capitalist resistance, but also as a locus of anti-colonial struggle; one that requires the mass solidarity of environmentalists, non-Indigenous working-class people, anti-imperialists, and anti-carceral organizations. Unity with land defenders is essential for the survival of the environment and the well-being of the common people.
The contradictions to be found in the policy of the Canadian government are glaring! On the one hand, we have the Supreme Court declaring the legitimacy of the rights and title of Wet’suwet’en hereditary leadership, on the other, we have CGL securing “consent” from assimilationist band councils established by the state.[9] On the one hand, we have the provincial and federal governments naming their commitments to reconciliation, on the other, we have their ongoing failure to meet their international obligations to Indigenous people – as stipulated in signed agreements like that of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
This case exposes contradictions between what the government masquerades as and who the real players are. CGL, owned by TC Energy Corporation, has been at the center of reports and investigations highlighting how TC Energy and its subsidiaries have leveraged political connections, lobbying efforts, and financial influence to secure approvals for the pipeline, bypassing meaningful consultation with Indigenous communities. Furthermore, TC Energy has faced scrutiny for its environmental record, including spills and safety violations in other projects, raising questions about its commitment to responsible development. The collaboration between CGL, law enforcement, and government agencies to criminalize Wet’suwet’en land defenders underscores a systemic alignment of corporate and state interests, prioritizing extractive industries over Indigenous rights and environmental protection.
The current policy approach demonstrates a clearly destructive pathology, where even the policies championed by the more “progressive” sections of the Canadian ruling class have been doomed to fail from the start. This is not just incompetence—it is a calculated effort to undermine effective climate crisis initiatives, both in recent years and historically. The sickening consequences of capitalist leadership in climate policy have been exposed for all to see. A shift in leadership and policy direction is necessary to counteract these failures and implement real solutions. This shift in leadership must not only prioritize science but it must also be well connected to the masses, anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, and revolutionary by its very nature.
The particular struggle of the Indigenous land defenders is a part of a general struggle that is in all of our basic interest. We call on all of the exploited and oppressed people living on these lands to join organizations that are fighting against our common enemy: the big monopoly corporations and the state that represents them. These parasites have chained our world to disaster in the quest for profit, and it is only by upending the social and economic system they’ve forced upon us that we can succeed in rescuing the planet and liberating humanity once and for all!
With hope and ferocity,
The SFPIRG’s LFTI Collective
Endnotes:
- Jackie McKay, “Judge Finds RCMP Breached Charter Rights during Arrests at Wet’suwet’en Pipeline Blockade,” CBC News, February 18, 2025, https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/wetsuweten-charter-rights-breached-1.7461745.
- Amnesty International, “Canada: Amnesty Report Tracks Years-Long Campaign of Criminalization, Unlawful Surveillance against Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders,” December 11, 2023, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/12/canada-amnesty-criminalization-surveillance-wetsuweten-land-defenders/.
- Amnesty International.
- Bob Mackin, “‘Racist and Dehumanizing’: Judge Slams RCMP, Reduces Sentences for CGL Pipeline Opponents,” IndigiNews, February 20, 2025, sec. News, https://indiginews.com/news/wetsuweten-pipeline-sentencing-rcmp-misconduct.
- Eva Jewell and Ian Mosby, “Calls to Action Accountability: A 2023 Status Update on Reconciliation,” Calls to Action Accountability (Toronto: Yellowhead Institute, December 2023), 10, https://yellowheadinstitute.org/trc/.
- Jewell and Mosby, 10.
- Jon Hernandez, “‘We Still Have Title’: How a Landmark B.C. Court Case Set the Stage for Wet’suwet’en Protests,” CBC News, February 13, 2020, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/delgamuukw-court-ruling-significance-1.5461763.
- Andrew Kurjata, “20 Years Ago, This Court Case Changed the Way Canadians Understood Indigenous Rights,” CBC News, December 12, 2017, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/delgamuukw-vs-british-columbia-20-years-rights-titles-1.4440703.
- Before the Indian Act established band councils, the Wet’suwet’en nation was primarily governed through a hereditary system. According to Wet’suwet’en law, which predates colonization and the Indian Act, “hereditary chiefs are responsible for decisions regarding ancestral lands.” Wet’suwet’en hereditary leadership is based on a house-based and clan system. Band councils, on the other hand, possess authority over lands within reserves. They were created by the federal government as part of a broader assimilatory agenda. It is important to note that there are six reserves located on Wet’suwet’en territory. Coastal GasLink’s pipeline does not directly intersect with any of them but it does pass through unceded and traditional lands over which Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have jurisdiction. “In 1997, the Supreme Court of Canada declared that the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan nations never gave up Rights and Title to the lands and waters in a landmark case known as Delgamuukw-Gisday’wa. This means the authority and jurisdiction over what happens on Wet’suwet’en territory outside of reserve boundaries lies with the hereditary government.” All thirteen hereditary chiefs, representing five clans, have voiced their opposition to the pipeline project. By contrast, five of the six band councils governing the aforementioned reserves have signed benefit agreements with Coastal GasLink. On this basis, Coastal GasLink asserted that it had obtained the consent of the territory’s Indigenous Peoples to begin construction. Matt Simmons, “Mapping Coastal GasLink’s Pipeline through Wet’suwet’en Territory,” The Narwhal, October 5, 2022, https://thenarwhal.ca/coastal-gaslink-map-wetsuweten/.
Bibliography:
Amnesty International. “Canada: Amnesty Report Tracks Years-Long Campaign of Criminalization, Unlawful Surveillance against Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders,” December 11, 2023. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/12/canada-amnesty-criminalization-surveillance-wetsuweten-land-defenders/.
Hernandez, Jon. “‘We Still Have Title’: How a Landmark B.C. Court Case Set the Stage for Wet’suwet’en Protests.” CBC News, February 13, 2020. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/delgamuukw-court-ruling-significance-1.5461763.
Jewell, Eva, and Ian Mosby. “Calls to Action Accountability: A 2023 Status Update on Reconciliation.” Calls to Action Accountability. Toronto: Yellowhead Institute, December 2023. https://yellowheadinstitute.org/trc/.
Kurjata, Andrew. “20 Years Ago, This Court Case Changed the Way Canadians Understood Indigenous Rights.” CBC News, December 12, 2017. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/delgamuukw-vs-british-columbia-20-years-rights-titles-1.4440703.
Mackin, Bob. “‘Racist and Dehumanizing’: Judge Slams RCMP, Reduces Sentences for CGL Pipeline Opponents.” IndigiNews, February 20, 2025, sec. News. https://indiginews.com/news/wetsuweten-pipeline-sentencing-rcmp-misconduct.
McKay, Jackie. “Judge Finds RCMP Breached Charter Rights during Arrests at Wet’suwet’en Pipeline Blockade.” CBC News, February 18, 2025. https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/wetsuweten-charter-rights-breached-1.7461745.
Simmons, Matt. “Mapping Coastal GasLink’s Pipeline through Wet’suwet’en Territory.” The Narwhal, October 5, 2022. https://thenarwhal.ca/coastal-gaslink-map-wetsuweten/.