Land Protectors group defend 2016 protest at Muskrat Falls site

Fifteen peopleaccused of breaking a court-ordered injunction at theMuskratFalls site forlarge scale protestsdefended their actions in Supreme Court in Happy Valley-Goose Bay on Friday, after two years of waiting.

"I hope everybody's charges are dropped and dismissed," said Kim Campbell-McLean, one of the accused.

"I have no idea [what the outcome will be]."

Some people in the Labrador Land Protectors group standaccused of contempt of civil court, which doesn't carry any criminal penalties. Some are accused of more than one instance of breaking an injunction issued by the Supreme Courtstating that they notenter the Muskrat Falls work site or block vehicles from entering it.

That includes a high-profileincident in October 2016, when a large group of protestors broke the lock off the gate to Muskrat Fallsand occupied a building on the site for four nights.

"I admitted to trespassing because I was in a colonial structure there, where in white man's law andcolonialisticlaw it says you're trespassing,but in my Aboriginal, Indigenouslaws I was not trespassing," saidCampbell-McLean.

"That's land that my forefathers walked, they slept on that landin their tilts, they trapped there."

Identity and knowledge

Some have seen their charges dropped over the past two years, others have made plea deals with Nalcor'scounseland received suspended sentences or conditional discharges for their actions.

The group in Supreme Court, however, pleaded not guilty to contempt of court, choosing to put their cases forward toJustice George Murphy for a decision.

Campbell-McLeanheld an eagle feather while she testified,the same one she held while testifying at the federal inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

"When we hold the feather it's our connection of being close to the creator for strength and courage and wisdom," Campbell-McLeansaid.

The accused sat at eye level to both theirdefencelawyer MarkGruchyandNalcorlawyer Chris King. King questioned their recollections of events and presented hours of video evidence to make his case.

"Their evidence is respecting, primarily, video evidence and security evidence going to the presence of the individuals at the site and various efforts they did or didn't make to serving and displaying injunctions,"Gruchysaid.

"They have to establish identity and knowledge."

Thedefencewas not able to call everybody it wanted to testify this week. Dates for that will be set in November.

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