Disturbing audio played during Wet'suwet'en' hearing
CBC
The abuse of process application brought by a Wet'suwet'en leader and members of a blockade who were found guilty of criminal contempt of court for stopping work on the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline was back in court on Tuesday.
The application began in January for Sleydo', also known as Molly Wickham, a wing chief of Cas Yikh, a house group of the Gidimt'en Clan of the Wet'suwet'en Nation, Shaylynn Sampson, a Gitxsan woman with Wet'suwet'en family ties and Corey Jocko, who is Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) from Akwesasne, which straddles the Quebec, Ontario and New York state borders.
Justice Michael Tammen of the B.C. Supreme Court in Smithers is hearing the continuation of the abuse of process application alleging that RCMP used excessive force while making the arrests and that the group was treated unfairly while in custody.
Tammen found them guilty in January of criminal contempt of court for breaking a 2019 injunction that impeded anyone from blocking work on the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
The abuse of process application asks the judge to stay the criminal contempt of court charges or to reduce their sentences based on the accused's treatment by police.
Sleydo' took the stand Tuesday and was questioned by defence lawyer Frances Mahon.
Video footage played in court showed Sleydo' and other members listening to radio transmissions the evening of Nov. 18, 2021, the day before she was arrested, of audio that was reminiscent of a horror movie.
The audio was a disturbing transmission where what sounded like children sang the nursery rhyme Ring Around the Rosie, along with other disturbing noises, including a voice saying, "I know where you are. I'm coming to get you."
No one knows who transmitted the audio, but Sleydo' testified that the radio channel it was transmitted on would have had to have been in close proximity to her, with knowledge of the channel the blockade members were communicating on.
At the time, many blockade participants had just been arrested by the RCMP. An exclusion zone had been set up in the area, which only allowed access to the RCMP and Coastal GasLink members.
In the video, Sleydo' can be heard saying, "Bring it on motherf--kers." She said her response was anger because many people she loved had been arrested in what she described as a large-scale militarized enforcement, and she felt the transmission was targeted at her and creeped her out.
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Sleydo' spoke about the symbolism of the red dress— representing missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and 2-spirit people that was hung up at coyote camp and the significance of the red hand print over Sleydo' and Sampson's mouth when they were arrested.
Sleydo' also spoke about a history of violence toward Wet'suwet'en women from residential schools, missionaries and people who have gone missing along the Highway of Tears.
