Coastal Gaslink Pipeline Ltd. v Huson (Dsta’hyl)

A Wet’suwet’en chief was recently convicted in BC Supreme Court of criminal contempt of an injunction obtained by a fossil fuel company, Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd.,[1] on his northwestern British Columbia territory.[2] He was sentenced to 60 days house arrest in July, 2024. The conviction is being appealed. The court’s reasons for his conviction betrayed its failure to understand and give full effect to the multi-juridical nature of the Canadian legal order. In this case commentary, I first lay out the facts relevant to the Wet’suwet’en law of trespass and to the Canadian equity law of injunctions and common law of criminal contempt. Then I unpack the penultimate paragraph of the court’s reasons for finding the chief guilty, which relate to what the judge calls the uncomfortable coexistence of Canadian and Wet’suwet’en law in this case and his questioning of why the chief did not invoke an aboriginal rights defence of his actions.[3] In the process, the veracity of some of injunction law’s myths and legends are called into question. [1] Owned by TC Energy Corporation. [2] Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. v. Huson, 2024 BCSC 509 (“Dsta’hyl”). [3] Dsta’hyl at para. 57.