A B.C. Supreme Court judge has found members of the RCMP made “grossly offensive, racist and dehumanizing” remarks about Indigenous women who were arrested in 2021 during a blockade of Coastal GasLink pipeline construction.
Justice Michael Tammen said in a ruling delivered in Smithers Tuesday that his findings of state misconduct don’t warrant a stay of proceedings against two women, but they and another protester will get a reduction in their sentences for criminal contempt as an “appropriate” remedy.
Coastal GasLink got an injunction to continue its pipeline construction, due to the blockade that had materialized. Police moved in on blockaders in 2021.
Cheif Sleydo' Molly Wickham, Shaylynn Sampson, and Corey Jocko, were convicted of criminal contempt for breaking the injunction in January 2024, but they applied to have the case stayed, alleging “systemic misconduct by the police during the injunction enforcement.”
Tammen said Wickham and journalist Amber Bracken had recording devices on them that were seized by police during their arrests, but the devices kept recording after being placed in police vehicles.
The devices captured conversations between police officers that referred to Wickham and Sampson “in highly offensive and clearly racist terms,” Tammen said.
He said audio recordings captured police laughing and comparing the women protesters - who had red handprints which honor MMIWG on their faces - to “orcs,” from “The Lord of the Rings.”
Tammem said the racist comments breached the Charter rights of Wickham and Sampson.
Wickham said the case was a “showdown” between Wet’suwet’en law and colonial law, and hopes Tammen’s decision will “assist other land defenders in the future.”
Tammen did reject claims that police used excessive force or employed “unnecessary resources” to dismantle the blockade.
Criminal contempt carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, for which the accused can now expect a reduction.
The case will be back in court on April 3 to fix a date for sentencing.
[With files from the Canadian Press]