{"id":95029,"date":"2025-07-22T14:58:23","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T18:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=95029"},"modified":"2025-07-22T14:58:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T18:58:23","slug":"anti-tmx-land-defenders-appeal-dismissed-court-finds-judge-did-not-err-in-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/22\/anti-tmx-land-defenders-appeal-dismissed-court-finds-judge-did-not-err-in-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-TMX land defenders\u2019 appeal dismissed, court finds judge \u2018did not err\u2019 in trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Aaron Hemens, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, IndigiNews Three land defenders convicted in 2023 for their opposition to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX) in Secw\u00e9pemc\u00fal\u2019ecw have been denied a retrial, but say they intend to further escalate their appeal. On Friday, the provincial Court of Appeal dismissed attempts to overturn criminal contempt sentences for Secw\u00e9pemc land defender April Thomas, Nlaka\u2019pamux land defender Red Deer Billie Pierre and settler ally Romilly Cavanaugh. The decision by the province\u2019s highest court comes more than four months after a lawyer for the trio argued that they were upholding Indigenous law when they were arrested for breaching a TMX construction area protected by an injunction three years earlier. Their lawyer argued that B.C. Supreme Court Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick \u2014 who tried and sentenced the… <\/p>\n

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By Aaron Hemens, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, IndigiNews Three land defenders convicted in 2023 for their opposition to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX) in Secw\u00e9pemc\u00fal\u2019ecw have been denied a retrial, but say they intend to further escalate their appeal. On Friday, the provincial Court of Appeal dismissed attempts to overturn criminal contempt sentences for Secw\u00e9pemc land defender April Thomas, Nlaka\u2019pamux land defender Red Deer Billie Pierre and settler ally Romilly Cavanaugh. The decision by the province\u2019s highest court comes more than four months after a lawyer for the trio argued that they were upholding Indigenous law when they were arrested for breaching a TMX construction area protected by an injunction three years earlier. Their lawyer argued that B.C. Supreme Court Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick \u2014 who tried and sentenced the... <\/p>\n

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Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"\nAnti-TMX land defenders\u2019 appeal dismissed, court finds judge \u2018did not err\u2019 in trial - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/22\/anti-tmx-land-defenders-appeal-dismissed-court-finds-judge-did-not-err-in-trial\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anti-TMX land defenders\u2019 appeal dismissed, court finds judge \u2018did not err\u2019 in trial - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Aaron Hemens, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, IndigiNews Three land defenders convicted in 2023 for their opposition to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX) in Secw\u00e9pemc\u00fal\u2019ecw have been denied a retrial, but say they intend to further escalate their appeal. On Friday, the provincial Court of Appeal dismissed attempts to overturn criminal contempt sentences for Secw\u00e9pemc land defender April Thomas, Nlaka\u2019pamux land defender Red Deer Billie Pierre and settler ally Romilly Cavanaugh. The decision by the province\u2019s highest court comes more than four months after a lawyer for the trio argued that they were upholding Indigenous law when they were arrested for breaching a TMX construction area protected by an injunction three years earlier. Their lawyer argued that B.C. 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