Wet’suwet’en chief named Canada’s first prisoner of conscience [Video]

OTTAWA –

Amnesty International called for the release of a First Nations chief who is serving two months of house arrest Wednesday, naming him Canada’s first prisoner of conscience.

Chief Dsta’hyl was arrested in 2021 for breaching a court order not to impede construction of the Coastal GasLink liquefied natural gas pipeline, and is currently confined to house arrest for contempt of court.

The chief, who also goes by the name Adam Gagnon, represents the Likhts’amisyu clan within the Wet’suwet’en Nation.

“The extraction industries have been protected by the government and encouraged to just keep raping the land,” Dsta’hyl said at a press conference, where he appeared by video from his home.

“It’s up to us as Wet’suwet’en people to protect the land,” he told reporters Wednesday.

Amnesty argued Canada has unjustly confined the chief, and others who defend their land and rights during a climate emergency.