Chief Dsta’hyl says he was acting as an enforcement officer for the Likhts’amisyu Clan when he seized construction equipment.
The Tyee: Security was unusually tight at the courthouse in Smithers on Monday, with sheriffs using metal detectors and searching the bags of those who attended the first day of the trial of a Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief criminally charged for his role in opposing the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
Chief Dsta’hyl, a wing chief of the Likhts’amisyu Clan who also goes by Adam Gagnon, was arrested Oct. 27, 2021, following an interaction with Coastal GasLink security on his clan’s traditional territory. Although he was originally taken into custody for mischief and theft over $5,000, Dsta’hyl now faces a charge of criminal contempt. The original charges are not proceeding, his lawyer, Rebecca McConchie, confirmed.
BC Prosecution Service announced last year that it would proceed with criminal contempt charges against some of those charged in the pipeline conflict in October and November 2021. Coastal GasLink has not proceeded with civil lawsuits against those accused of breaching its injunction, which prevents anyone from blocking access roads and pipeline worksites.
A lawyer for the pipeline company sat behind Crown prosecutors in the courtroom Monday.
According to facts read by Crown prosecutor Paul Battin, Dsta’hyl had several interactions with police and Coastal GasLink security over the 10 days leading up to his arrest. The exchanges occurred in an area covered by the injunction and were captured in videos recorded by security workers and police between Oct. 17 and 26, 2021, he said.
On the afternoon of Oct. 27, an RCMP officer was on the Shea Forest Service Road southwest of Houston when he received a call that Dsta’hyl was heading his way from a nearby work camp and was “arrestable for mischief and theft,” Battin said. In the back of the truck, police found four batteries used in heavy duty equipment, he told the court.
Dsta’hyl was handcuffed, searched and taken to the Houston RCMP detachment that evening, where he was held in custody until the following afternoon, Battin said. Also recording the exchanges were Dsta’hyl and his supporters, who uploaded videos to social media accounts supporting Wet’suwet’en pipeline resistance, the court heard. According to Battin, it was the public nature of the actions that shifted them from civil to criminal contempt.
“There are four elements of criminal contempt: the existence of an order, knowledge of that order, that the accused breached that order and then the accused did so in a public way, this last element being what distinguishes criminal contempt from civil contempt,” he said.
As the trial got underway Monday morning, the court heard from a consultant hired by the RCMP to collect content posted to Gidimt’en Checkpoint and Sovereign Likhts’amisyu, public social media accounts supporting Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs who oppose pipelines through their traditional territory.
Julie Jones was contracted in May 2022, through her business Human-i Intelligence Services, to “retrieve materials” posted to the Facebook and Instagram accounts in the days leading up to Dsta’hyl’s arrest.
Jones testified that RCMP provided her with a list of 14 videos, including names of the accounts, the dates they were posted and a title for each video. She used a virtual private network, or VPN, to mask her identity while downloading the files and software that recorded her steps. “On that list there was also two websites. One was a news website and the other one was the Coastal [GasLink] pipeline website,” she added.
In the videos, which were played for the court, Dsta’hyl introduces himself to Coastal GasLink security workers as the Likhts’amisyu enforcement officer. He tells them that they are trespassing on the clan’s territory and asks them to leave, saying he will “seize” equipment and decommission vehicles used for pipeline construction. “As Wet’suwet’en, we’re not recognizing that injunction because we’re not part of B.C., we’re not a part of Canada, so that injunction is completely invalid on Wet’suwet’en territory,” Dsta’hyl says in a video posted Oct. 25, 2021.
In another video, posted two days later, Dsta’hyl is shown climbing onto heavy machinery and removing its batteries, saying he is securing the equipment “because none of the executive at CGL will come to the table if we don’t have a few assets in order to bring them onto the table.”
Under cross-examination, Jones confirmed that her role focused on “evidence collection” rather than investigation. In response to questions from McConchie, she said RCMP had not asked her to conduct internet research related to allegations of the pipeline’s environmental or cultural impacts, or details of Wet’suwet’en law.
Later in the day, the court heard from two witnesses who worked for security companies contracted by the pipeline company.
Douglas Drappier was working for SecureGard, a company providing contract security services, on Oct. 17, 2021, when he crossed paths with Dsta’hyl, who was driving a red Chevy pickup on the pipeline right-of-way near the Parrott Forest Service Road south of Houston. Initially thinking it was a pipeline worker, Drappier pulled onto the right-of-way and the two vehicles pulled up next to one another.
Dsta’hyl introduced himself as the Likhts’amisyu enforcement officer and said he had warned Coastal GasLink to remove its equipment from the clan’s territory or it would be seized, Drappier said. Another person in the pickup recorded their exchange. “They told me I was on Native land and they had the right to be there, that I didn’t,” Drappier said. “He wasn’t rude. We weren’t rude to each other. We were very polite to each other. He understood I was doing my job.”
He estimated the pair spoke for about a half hour. Following the interaction, Drappier said he called his supervisor on a satellite phone and another company hired by Coastal GasLink, Forsythe Security, sent several vehicles to the site.
Forsythe field security advisor Angela Robinson was among those patrolling the Parrott road that morning, she testified. She met with SecureGard personnel at about 9:30 a.m. but “it wasn’t until later in the afternoon that I actually had the opportunity to engage with Mr. Gagnon,” she said. She described how, just before 3 p.m., Dsta’hyl’s red pickup pulled from the Parrott road onto the right-of-way where the security workers were parked near heavy machinery. A number of other vehicles followed, she said.
After at first observing Dsta’hyl’s exchange with another security worker from her vehicle, Robinson stepped out of her vehicle and began speaking with the Hereditary Chief. The court watched the exchange, which was recorded on Robinson’s body camera.
Jailed Wet’suwet’en Chief Has a Friendly Warning for Coastal GasLink
In it, Dsta’hyl introduces himself as the Likhts’amisyu enforcement officer and reminds Robinson of an eviction notice previously issued to Coastal GasLink by Wet’suwet’en hereditary leadership. “I’m asking you guys to all please leave,” he says. “That injunction is bogus as hell. We have a supreme court decision on our side.”
Dsta’hyl tells Robinson that he’s going to seize equipment. Robinson can be heard relaying updates to her colleagues via satellite communications, describing Dsta’hyl removing batteries from an excavator. He was arrested by RCMP about an hour later on the Shae Forest Service Road, roughly 70 kilometres southwest of where he removed batteries from the excavator.
About two weeks later, Wet’suwet’en hereditary leaders would close the Morice Forest Service Road through neighbouring Gidimt’en Clan territory, leading to a four-day standoff and the arrests of about 30 people. Some of those arrested in November 2021 also face criminal contempt charges and have applied to the B.C. Supreme Court to have the charges stayed.
The Crown said it plans to call eight witnesses in Dsta’hyl’s case and expects to wrap up on Thursday. The defence is scheduled to present its case over a week in July.
Amanda Follett Hosgood, TodayTheTyee.ca
Amanda Follett Hosgood is The Tyee’s northern B.C. reporter. She lives in Wet’suwet’en territory. Find her on Twitter @amandajfollett.