The Welland Tribune

Police issue 99 trespass citations during protest

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OTTAWA — The Liberal government’s conflictin­g climate and pipeline policies were thrown into sharp relief today as more than 200 protesters marched on Parliament Hill demanding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reject any new oilsands infrastruc­ture.

The protest resulted in the brief detention of 99 individual­s, all of them issued citations by the RCMP for trespassin­g after climbing over police barricades near the foot of the Peace Tower.

The immediate focus of the demonstrat­ion was the proposed expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline from Alberta to Burnaby, B.C., which the Liberals have said they’ll decide upon by mid-December.

But the larger theme was keeping fossil fuels in the ground, as many signs proclaimed, and urging Trudeau to keep his word on Canada’s internatio­nal emissionsc­utting promises.

“Climate Leaders Don’t Build Pipelines,” said a giant banner carried at the front of the protest group, which was dominated by university students from Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.

Protest organizers called it the largest act of student climate civil disobedien­ce in Canadian history, but the boisterous rally was a polite affair.

After some initial pushing and shoving at the police barricades, the protesters began individual­ly climbing over the gates, often with police assistance, where they were then charged. The first dozen or so were handcuffed before being led away, but most of the detained protesters were not.

Andrew Stein, a McGill University environmen­tal sciences student, said forcing the police to arrest them was the point of the exercise.

“It gets attention and it gets the word out there that climate leaders do not build pipelines,” Stein said in an interview shortly before climbing the barricade himself.

Protest spokeswoma­n Amanda Harvey-Sanchez, a third-year University of Toronto student, said pipeline approvals are a dealbreake­r for many younger voters who helped propel the Trudeau Liberals to a majority government in last October’s general election.

“If Trudeau wants us on his team in 2019, he cannot approve this (Trans Mountain) pipeline,” said Harvey-Sanchez.

“We’re coming here to the capital to call on Trudeau to reject Kinder Morgan.”

Protest organizers said the 99 detained individual­s, including Stein and Harvey-Sanchez, were issued citations that bar them from Parliament Hill for three months, but they were not fined.

 ?? ADRIAN WYLD/CANADIAN PRESS ?? A protester holds up her hands as police bar oil pipeline protesters from using a gate to enter Parliament Hill Monday in Ottawa.
ADRIAN WYLD/CANADIAN PRESS A protester holds up her hands as police bar oil pipeline protesters from using a gate to enter Parliament Hill Monday in Ottawa.

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