In Northern British Columbia, a Wet’suwet’en chief is under house arrest for resisting a pipeline on his territory

The Wet’suwet’en village of Witset bustles on a hot August morning as locals cast their spears into the Bulkley River below the Morricetown canyon.

The salmon run this year is low. Still, Wet’suwe’ten people continue fishing in the hopes of catching a few to process, smoke, and can — a tradition integral to their way of life. However, Wet’suwet’en Likts’amisyu Clan Wing Chief Dsta’hyl, also known as Adam Gagnon, wasn’t able to partake this year.

Perched on a hill overlooking the canyon, he watches things unfold from his home, where he’s been held captive for most of his days since July 3 as he completes a sentence of 60 days house arrest.

“It was a blessing in disguise,” said Dsta’hyl, about not having to serve his time behind bars. Yet he remains defiant, and plans to appeal. “All of us have to start standing up. We must raise our children to start taking control of their own territories.”

In late July, Amnesty International took the extraordinary step in naming Dsta’hyl Canada’s first ever designated prisoner of conscience, and now demanding his immediate and unconditional release.

“The Canadian state has unjustly criminalized and confined Chief Dsta’hyl for defending the land and rights of the Wet’suwet’en people,” Amnesty International’s Ana Piquer stated in a press release. “As a result, Canada joins the shameful list of countries where prisoners of conscience remain under house arrest or behind bars.”

In October 2021, Dsta’hyl was arrested and charged with criminal contempt after confiscating and decommissioning heavy equipment utilized by Coastal GasLink to construct its LNG pipeline on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory. Dsta’hyl said he was enforcing Wet’suwet’en laws as the company did not have the free, prior and informed consent of hereditary chiefs to build the pipeline.

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  • ReadFanon [any, any]
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    3 months ago

    The Canadian settler-colonial regime has been putting immense pressure on the Wet'suwet'en nation for years now, violating treaties and the legal rights that the settlers-colonial regime themselves conferred to the Wet'suwet'en nation.

    Here's a 6 minute video crash course on the topic from the Wet'suwet'en people themselves.

    If you look elsewhere on that channel, Unist'ot'en Camp, there's a lowkey hilarious video where some mining company managers are trying to cross into Wet'suwet'en nation territory and they are being blocked by Wet'suwet'en people and very directly informed that they are being refused entry. The mining company workers are baffled and just keep insisting until they eventually get the picture and then they say "We brought you tobacco as a gift" (and maybe some bottled water? It's been a long time, I forget the exact details...) as they offer up a small pouch of commercial tobacco, expecting it to be received warmly, and the Wet'suwet'en people are like "No. Fuck right off. We don't want you or your $15 worth of tobacco on our land because the minute you set foot on it you're going to start trouble and you'll call the Mounties so they can arrest us on bogus charges and disband our camp. The only thing we want from you is your absence." (Except in much more polite terms.)

    Unfortunately that channel went dark but there's some great videos in there.