Members of the Tiny House Warriors display red dresses and cloth to honour missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls along the perimeter of a camp that once housed 550 Trans Mountain pipeline workers in Secwepemcúl’ecw in Blue River, B.C., in April 2022. Photo: Aaron Hemens, Local Journalism Initiative.
The sentencing for four members of the Tiny House Warriors found guilty of a slew of criminal charges has been rescheduled until the new year, after one of their lawyers successfully applied to adjourn the court proceedings.
The application to postpone the initial sentencing dates of Oct. 30 and 31 for Isha Jules, Mayuk (Nicole) Manuel, Tricia Charlie and Sami Nasr to January or February of 2025 was approved by Provincial Court Judge Lorianna Bennett at Kamloops Law Courts in Secwepemcúl’ecw last week.
The four Tiny House Warriors were convicted in a colonial courtroom earlier this year, but land defenders have maintained that they did not commit any crimes under Secwépemc law, including a duty to put their bodies on the line to protect the Earth.
Manuel’s lawyer, Joe Killoran, had applied for the adjournment, the courtroom heard but was not present in court on Oct. 30. Speaking on his behalf was Kyle Komarynsky, Jules’s lawyer. Nasr and Charlie’s legal counsel were also present.
“[Killoran’s] taking a leave of absence that arises on very short notice, so short that there isn’t even a proper paper application before the court. I’m here making it on his behalf,” Komarynsky told Bennett.
“He is no longer available until the end of 2024. We are hopeful that all of counsel are able to find some dates into late January.”
The defence counsel all supported the adjournment application so that all four defendants could be sentenced at the same time. Crown prosecutor Anthony Varesi did not oppose the request.
The reasons for Killoran’s unavailability were not disclosed before the court, but Varesi said he has spoken with him and he should be available sometime in January or February.
“I believe he’s confident he’ll be back in the new year,” Varesi said.
While new sentencing dates have yet to be determined, Bennett granted the application and said it’s important that all the defendants — along with their legal counsel — be present in person for the sentencing.
‘This is a normal occurrence in Canada’
The Tiny House Warriors are a Secwépemc-led resistance group opposing the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion’s (TMX) development on their unceded lands.
In 2018, the group set up a number of mobile tiny homes along Murtle Lake Road in Blue River in Secwepemcúl’ecw to disrupt the pipeline project and a nearby temporary camp for its workers.
Tiny House Warriors members Manuel, Jules, Nasr and Charlie were arrested on Sept. 15, 2021, following three hours of heated and sometimes physical confrontations with TMX security personnel at the project site near the Tiny House Warriors village.
In May, Bennett found each of the four land defenders guilty on two mischief charges, causing a public disturbance, and loitering.
Jules was found guilty of the two assault charges against him, while Nasr was found guilty of assault with a weapon.
Nasr and Charlie were found guilty of breaking and entering. The two, alongside Manuel, were also convicted of resisting or obstructing an arrest, while Manuel was also found guilty of breaching her release order prohibiting her from obstructing a Trans Mountain worksite or being within five metres of any Trans Mountain employee.
Bennett came to her guilty verdict after analyzing evidence from a five-day trial in February. In addition to bodycam footage from the project’s security members, the evidence consisted of testimonies from six Crown witnesses: four former TMX security personnel, and two RCMP officers who responded to sometimes violent confrontations between members of the Tiny House Warriors and TMX security on Sept. 15, 2021.
Mayuk’s twin sister Kanahus — another member of Tiny House Warriors who was present during the 2021 confrontations with TMX personnel — released a statement on social media last week saying her sibling was “forced into colonial courts” and now “wrongfully” faces jail time.
“This is a normal occurrence in Canada, where Indigenous peoples are politically persecuted for defending their Indigenous land title and rights against land destroying corporations,” she wrote, in part.
“The charges are so absurd, one being ‘loitering.’ Mind you, the pipeline workers were building the man camp entrance right in front of our Tiny House Warriors entrance which was sure to spark conflict.”
Supporters refuse to rise for judge
When the initial sentencing began last Wednesday, several supporters of the Tiny House Warriors in the courtroom gallery refused to stand for Judge Bennett as court was called to order — despite requests to do so by sheriffs and the courtroom clerk.
This “familiar situation,” as described by Bennett, has been a recurring scene throughout the Tiny House Warriors’ court proceedings this past year.
While Bennett has called the gesture an “interference with the administration of justice,” Killoran argued in May during verdict proceedings that “it can’t be reasonably be demanded of people to bow and stand for the symbol of their genocide.”
Ultimately, Bennett outlined again on Wednesday that anyone in the courtroom gallery who refused to stand will be instructed by sheriffs to stay outside of the courtroom whenever sessions reconvene.
After Bennett approved postponing sentencing until the new year, prosecutor Varesi revealed there was an outstanding warrant for Mayuk Manuel’s arrest, related to a separate incident that occurred earlier this year.
Police alleged that on May 12, Manuel spat on two people, Gary Gray and Kirk Sauls, who were working on a reclaimed asphalt pavement project in Manuel’s home community of Neskonlith Indian Band, a project that Manuel was opposed to.
She faces two assault charges in the matter and is scheduled to appear in Kamloops Law Courts on Nov. 14.
While the unrelated allegations were not planned to be heard in court last week, Varesi asked Bennett if it was appropriate to outline the conditions for Manuel’s release order from the alleged incident, since she was already before the court.
Bennett agreed and granted Manuel release on an order, with no financial obligation.
The conditions of her release are that she not have any direct or indirect contact with Gray or Sauls, and that she is prohibited from using firearms or any weapons — with the exception of hunting.
