Tag Archives: Sleydo (Molly Wickham)

Energy, Indigenous Nations

Sentencing of land defenders tests Canada’s commitment to Indigenous rights

By Sonal Gupta, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Three Indigenous land defenders are set to be sentenced this week for blocking construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline on their nation’s unceded territory in northern British Columbia. 

Hereditary Chief Na’Moks said the defenders from the Wet’suwet’en Nation are standing on the right side of history. He called their efforts an act of care for the land, water and air that sustain everyone. “They are simply protecting what is right for this entire planet,” he said.

Sleydo’ Molly Wickham, Shaylynn Sampson and Corey “Jayohcee” Jocko were convicted in January 2024 for defying court injunctions that aimed to end blockades against pipeline construction in 2019. The sentencing hearing for the three begins today in Smithers, BC. For the community, it’s raising fundamental questions about how Canadian and Indigenous law coexist.

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Indigenous Nations, Politics

Behind the Campbell River Premiere of Yintah

21 people attended the premier of the feature documentary Yintah at the Campbell River Community Center on February 20th, 2025. This screening is sponsored by the North Island Powell River (NIPR) Federal Green Party Riding Association and follows the Wet’suwet’en land defender’s 10 year struggle to keep gas companies  from building a pipeline through their territory. Cortes Currents interviewed two of the event organizers about the film and some of the deeper issues within the local community. 

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Indigenous Nations, Industry

‘Heartbreaking’: an overhead view of Coastal GasLink sediment spills into Wet’suwet’en waters, wetlands

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

Sleydo’ Molly Wickham was composed and quiet as she stared out the window of a helicopter flying over vast stretches of TC Energy’s Coastal GasLink pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory (yintah). Below, a wide swath cut through forests and wetlands, crossing creeks and rivers. 

A wing chief of the Gidimt’en clan, Sleydo’ was part of a small group on a monitoring flight to document the contentious project’s impacts as soaring temperatures rapidly melted last winter’s heavy snowpack.

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Environment, Indigenous Nations

‘We should avoid monitoring’: feds quietly backed off while Coastal GasLink pipeline work killed fish

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

On a dreary gray day in late October, passers by gawked at a scene outside a hotel in Smithers, B.C. The charred remnants of several trucks sat in the parking lot in the wake of what police described as a “targeted attack” in the pre-dawn hours of the morning. 

Among the blackened wreckage were four police cruisers — marked and unmarked vehicles with the RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group, a special task force assigned to police opposition to industrial projects. The controversial RCMP unit maintains a constant presence on Wet’suwet’en yintah (territory) where Coastal GasLink (CGL) is building a pipeline without the consent of the nation’s Hereditary Chiefs. 

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Energy, Indigenous Nations, Justice

Letters reveal what energy companies told RCMP before Wet’suwet’en raid

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

In late April, RCMP officers walked into the Gidimt’en Camp near the confluence of Ts’elkay Kwe (Lamprey Creek) and Wedzin Kwa (Morice River). Their visits on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory in northwest B.C. had been a daily occurrence, with members of the RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group showing up at all hours, including in the middle of the night according to locals.

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