Kanien'kehá:ka man on why he joined B.C. pipeline blockade

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.

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.