B.C. pipeline protest camp torn down, 5 arrested

Movement will grow, pipeline protester says

At dawn Thursday, the RCMP raided the encampment known as Camp Cloud at the site where the Trans Mountain pipeline ends in Burnaby, B.C., and began arresting protesters.

Cpl. Daniela Panesar said police moved in to enforce a court order obtained by the City of Burnaby last week to dismantle the camp and snuff out a sacred fire that has been burning since the camp was set up last fall.

“They stormed the gate and they said anyone around here was violating the injunction and (will be) arrested,” said Xenoa Skinteh, who said he was arrested while protecting the sacred fire.

Sinteh, 29, was released after he agreed to leave the area but he vowed to continue with a peaceful protest.

Police evicted 11 people, arresting five who vowed to stay.

“For safety reasons, we can’t have people there, so there have been arrests of people that have refused to leave,” Panesar said.

City crews then moved in with backhoes and began tearing down the protest camp, which has grown since November to include a two-storey wooden structure, a cabin, an outdoor shower, more than a dozen tents, and vehicles and trailers.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge granted the City of Burnaby an injunction last Friday to force pipeline protesters to take down their camp by Sunday.

The order allowed for the city to dismantle the camp and prohibits similar occupations.

Justice Geoffrey Gomery was specific in the injunction that the fire needed to be put out because it was burning in dry conditions near an aviation fuel tank farm.

The city, which is opposed to the pipeline, sought the injunction because the camp violated building, traffic and fire bylaws.

Police “maintained a dialogue with the residents of the camp in the hopes that they would obey the injunction and vacate the location” within a 48-hour deadline set by the court, the RCMP said.

That deadline passed Sunday night but protesters said the next day that they were prepared to protect the sacred fire and tie themselves to structures rather than obey the injunction.

George Manuel of the Shuswap Nation told CBC News that despite his arrest and eviction, he won’t stop protesting the expansion of the pipeline.

“Camp Cloud is not going anywhere,” Manuel said. “A cloud — it can dissipate. It can come apart and become more than one cloud. It can be many things ... we are not going anywhere.”

Said Tsleil-Waututh Nation member Will George: “There may be one camp coming down, however this movement will continue to grow.”

Protesters — who have been involved with a watch house set up by the Tsleil-Waututh Nation on the nearby pipeline route — said they will not be intimidated. “Blockades resume next week,” said Stand. earth director Tzeporah Berman.

The blockades are meant to coincide with expected ramp-up of construction of the pipeline project that the federal government bought two months ago from Kinder Morgan. The $4.5-billion price tag includes the existing Trans Mountain pipeline that delivers oil from Alberta to the Lower Mainland and the U.S. The expansion — with the construction of a second line — will triple the pipeline’s capacity and allow increased shipments to the U.S. and China.

Protesters are opposed to the project because of risks of a pipeline or tanker spill and increases in carbon emissions. Since March, RCMP say they have made 217 arrests under a court-ordered injunction that restricts protesters from within five metres of sites in Burnaby where work related to the pipeline expansion is underway. Pipeline officials have said they expect line clearing and preparation to take place beginning this month, with pipe being laid in the ground early next year.

The National Energy Board said Thursday that approvals have been granted for construction of the pipeline route from Edmonton to a pump station near Kamloops.

Trans Mountain officials and the federal government declined to comment on the injunction.

“I think there was sufficient notice given to the occupants of Camp Cloud,” the City of Burnaby acting manager, Dipak Dattani, said.

Lesley Durrant, who lives near Camp Cloud, said she has more sympathy for the protesters than she does for Kinder Morgan.

“We don’t want the pipeline, we don’t think it’s economically prudent and we sympathize with the protesters but we have lived with a lot of smoke, a lot of a lot of drumming and a lot of dogs barking. It’s been a long summer,” she said.