May is not above the law

Elizabeth May has every right — even an obligation as leader of the Green Party of Canada and MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands — to oppose and protest the Trans Mountain Pipeline project. It would be against her principles to do otherwise.

But thumbing her nose at the courts shouldn’t be part of her job.

May was fined $1,500 by a B.C. Supreme Court judge Monday for violating his injunction preventing people from protesting within five metres of two work sites in Burnaby. He said his order preserved the right to peaceful, lawful and safe protests, but May chose to protest at a main gate to Kinder Morgan’s pipeline terminal to maximize media exposure.

The judge said May exploited her position as an MP to encourage others to break the law. He also said that as a lawyer, May has a responsibility to obey his order and persuade others to do so.

Outside court, May said she respects the judge’s decision, but said she believes there’s a place for non-violent civil disobedience in a democracy.

Perhaps she should have read a briefing document prepared by the legal and social affairs division of the Parliamentary Information and Research Service.

“In Canada, all citizens are subject to the ordinary laws of general application, both criminal and civil,” says the document. “There is no exemption for parliamentarians, nor is there any immunity or special rights related to their parliamentary functions, outside the narrowly defined application of parliamentary privilege.”

We don’t believe May should lose her seat, and there’s zero chance it would happen anyway, but she should perhaps consider what would happen if everyone decided to be selective about the laws they obeyed.