“Our medicines, our berries, our food, the animals, our water, our culture, are all here since time immemorial. We are obligated to protect our ways of life for our babies unborn.” These are the words of Sleydo’, a member of the Indigenous Wetʼsuwetʼen Nation, who lives on land inhabited by her ancestors for thousands of years.
In 2019, Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd (CGL) began constructing a fossil fuel pipeline through the Wet’suwet’en Nation’s ancestral territory, without the consent of the Hereditary Chiefs and their clans. They never agreed to the pipeline and the Nation has the right to decide what development takes place on its territory.
Committed to protecting their ancestral lands and everyone’s right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, Sleydo’ and other land defenders began taking action to stop the pipeline construction. But their peaceful actions have been met with intimidation, harassment and criminalization.
In 2018, the British Columbia Supreme Court (BCSC) granted CGL an injunction to prevent any interference with pipeline construction. The police have enforced this injunction with four violent raids on Wetʼsuwetʼen territory, using weapons, helicopters and dogs. More than 75 land defenders have been arrested.
In November 2021, Sleydo’ was arrested during one of these raids, with nearly 30 other defenders. Along with two other defenders, she was later found guilty of “criminal contempt” for allegedly disobeying the injunction order to stay away from pipeline construction sites, despite being on her ancestral territory. The land defenders have made an application to the BCSC stating that their human rights were violated by police during the raids. Their future depends on the outcome of the application. If unsuccessful, they face prison.