After multiple days of testimony over the course of 2025, a former elected chief and current Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief has had a court order barring him from his community extended, 30 years after being convicted of multiple sexual assaults.
The Dec. 15 decision to extend the court order against Stanley George Nikal, age 78, is in part due to his continued claims that the charges were the work of a conspiracy against him, up to and including paying off the jury in his 1995 trial.
Over the summer of 2025, a trial was held over whether to extend the court order under the Canadian Criminal Code, specifically Section 810.2 which states that where there are fears that a person may commit a serious offence, the individual can be brought before a provincial court judge and place under court mandated restrictions.
Since the completion of his jail sentence and probation, Nikal has been barred from residing within 50 kilometres of the town of Witset (formerly Moricetown) in Northern B.C., where the offences took place.
In 1995, Nikal was found guilty following a trial by jury for assaulting four young women between the ages of 10 and 18 between 1966 and 1988. On appeal, he was able to reduce his jail sentence from 12 years to nine.
At the trial, and during his appeal, he claimed the victims lied as part of a political conspiracy to force Nikal out of power. No evidence of such a conspiracy was found or accepted by the court or jury.
Following the completion of his probation after his release from jail in 2002, Nikal has been under an 810.2 order upholding the restrictions barring him from living in the community or from contacting any of the witnesses or victims.
He appealed that court order in 2014, claiming that the judge had not properly considered the evidence before them. The order was upheld in 2016 by the BC Court of Appeal. The order was reissued in 2018 to extend the restrictions.
During the most recent trial, it was noted that concerns remained over the fact that Nikal was an untreated sexual offender.
Nikal, denying any of the allegations, has refused to participate in any intake program that might help better identify his risk for reoffending, including identifying any internal factors or who might be a potential victim should he reoffend.
The most recent assessment on Nikal noted that with his age, the risk of sexual reoffending was less should the former chief return to Witset, to which the judge agreed.
Instead, the judge noted that much more of a concern was the threats and promises that Nikal has made of retaliation on his planned return to the community, including forcing those who testified against him out of the community, with criminal harassment one of the potential serious offences that is considered under an 810.2 order.
In addition to being a past elected chief and a Hereditary Chief of his clan, Nikal’s son has been previously elected chief, and his daughter is the Witset health administrator. His immediate family has been described as having continuous hostility towards those who testified and their supporters, which has led to conflict within the small community.
While under the restrictions preventing him from residing near Witset, Nikal has made brief visits to the community with permission from his probation supervisors. The RCMP officers who cover Witset testified that every visit to the community made by Nikal results in an influx of complaints to the police and that many in the community remain concerned about him.
The band council of the Witset First Nation has issued resolutions banning Nikal from returning, with one cited during the 2016 appeal decision and another issued in April of 2025 ahead of his current trial.
The current court order is set to last for two years.