A Coastal GasLink blockade participant told a B.C. Supreme Court hearing on Monday that going to Wet’suwt’en territory gave him closure after being arrested in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, Ont., during the Shut Down Canada movement.
The movement was a series of protests and blockades that took place across Canada in early 2020 in support of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs’ opposition to the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
Corey Jocko, who is Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) from Akwesasne, which straddles the Quebec, Ontario and New York state borders, took the stand Monday and was questioned by defence lawyer Frances Mahon.
Jocko is the last of the blockaders to testify in support of the abuse-of-process application he has brought forward with 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, and Shaylynn Sampson, a Gitxsan woman with Wet’suwet’en family ties.
The proceedings are a continuation of a hearing that started in January in B.C. Supreme Court in Smithers.
Justice Michael Tammen found the three guilty in January of criminal contempt of court for breaking a 2019 injunction that impeded anyone from blocking work on the Coastal GasLink pipeline (CGL).
The abuse of process application alleges that RCMP used excessive force while arresting the accused and that the group was treated unfairly while in custody.
It asks the judge to stay the criminal contempt of court charges or to reduce their sentences based on their treatment by police.
On coming to B.C.
Jocko told the court he was stopping by Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory in Ontario on his way home from working in Kanehsatà:ke, Que., something he said he often did. There was a camp in the community in support of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chief to stop the construction of the CGL pipeline, which was blocking rail traffic in the area.
Jocko said he was arrested along with many other people at the time for what he said was just being on his territory. He said he spent the night in a tent at the camp and woke up to people saying the police were there.
Jocko did not say if he was participating in the blockade, just that he spent the night because he was tired from the long drive the day before. He said the matter has not yet gone to court.
But he said the event is what led him to go to Wet’suwet’en territory in October 2021.
“In my heart, there was a little closure for coming out here after what I’ve been through [at Tyendinaga],” he said.
He said he didn’t know anyone at the blockade on Wet’suwet’en territory and flew from Toronto to Smithers, B.C., without a plan on how to get to the yintah (territory) but ended up catching a ride with a group of people he had met at the airport who took him to the Gidimt’en checkpoint.
He said the first person he met was Wet’suwet’en hereditary Chief Woos of the Cas Yikh, or Grizzly Bear House, of the Gidim’ten clan.
Jocko said it was a great honour and made him feel welcomed immediately by other people at the camp.
After spending time at the camp, he said he entered a romantic relationship with Jocelyn Alec, the daughter of Chief Woos, and ended up living in her cabin, which occupied the pipeline’s drill pad site.
Video from Jocko’s phone played in court
Video was played in court taken on Jocko’s phone at the time he was arrested with Alec and two other people at the cabin.
CBC did not view the video evidence because the court only provides phone access when not attending in person.
CBC Indigenous has obtained new RCMP footage of 2021 arrests at Coyote Camp on Wet’suwet’en territory, a key location for the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
Jocko testified he addressed an officer who came to the cabin door to ask them to leave the cabin, saying they were on Wet’suwet’en territory and it was the police who were trespassing.
Jocko said he was worried for his life and the lives of the people he was with at the time of the enforcement.
He said he held a cot in front of him and the other people in the cabin while officers were breaking down the door to act as a barrier between the people in the cabin and the police entering.
Crown says inconsistencies in testimony
Crown lawyer Paul Battin pointed to alleged inconsistencies in Jocko’s testimony during his cross-examination.
A video shown in court of an interaction between blockade members and police on Oct. 11, 2021, shows Jocko and a group of people yelling at police approaching the Gidimt’en checkpoint.
A man in the video can be heard yelling to police that they were dealing with Mohawk people now and the police can’t push around the Wet’suwet’en, while Jocko can be heard yelling at the police.
Jocko said he did not know anyone when he arrived at the camp but, under cross-examination, said he had met the man in the video prior to arriving on the yintah.
Battin said Jocko was not being honest with the court when he asked if he knew the name of this man.
Jocko said he had met him previously in North Dakota “temporarily,” and he has met thousands of people travelling as an artist and a musician and doesn’t remember everyone.
Battin asked Jocko why, in this interaction, he didn’t address police in Kanien’kéha (Mohawk language) like he did when police came to the door of the cabin on Nov. 19, 2021, when he was arrested.
Jocko said he wouldn’t speak over the person who is speaking, and in this instance, there was no personal interaction with the police.
Battin then showed a video from when police came to the door of the cabin and Jocko could be heard speaking over the officer.
Jocko said he felt obligated to speak up to uphold Wet’suwet’en law.