By Aaron Hemens, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, IndigiNews Three land defenders who were convicted for opposing the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX) in Secwépemcúl’ecw are appealing their sentences. During a hearing in “Vancouver” earlier this month, a lawyer representing the trio asked the B.C. Court of Appeal to re-examine their convictions, arguing their sentencing judge had made a series of unfair errors against them during their trial. Benjamin Isitt said the appellants — Secwépemc land defender April Thomas, Nlaka’pamux land defender Red Deer Billie Pierre, and settler-ally Romilly Cavanaugh, a former TMX worker — were upholding Indigenous law when they were arrested. “They believe they had legal duties in these circumstances,” Isitt told a three-judge appeal panel on March 3, “arising from Secwépemc and Nlakaʼpamux laws to protect the sacred…
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