‘We’re here to stay,’ vows pipeline foe at tank farm gates
Growing Camp Cloud site stirs tensions, but protesters insist motives are peaceful
They call it Camp Cloud, but the protest encampment outside the Trans Mountain pipeline tank facility is becoming more firmly rooted in the ground on Burnaby Mountain.
It started last November as a single travel trailer parked at Kinder Morgan’s Westridge marine terminal on Burrard Inlet, but was moved in December to the corner of Shellmont Street and Underhill Avenue outside the tank farm’s gates.
The camp has grown to include a small, lumber-sided cabin, an open-air fire pit and kitchen, the partial shell of a second lumber and plywood building and a collection of tents, all on public land.
Some tensions have arisen around Camp Cloud, its structures were vandalized with graffiti last month and earlier this week an argument between camp occupants and a television news crew was characterized as threatening in the media report.
An occupant of the camp, however, said there were no threats, they aren’t out to cause trouble, but also they aren’t going anywhere.
“We’re here to stay, to stop that drill from going into Burnaby Mountain,” said a spokesman for the camp who goes by the name Black Wolf. (He said he doesn’t use his “colonial name,” now, which is Dean Bradley.)
And it will stay there, along with the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation’s watch house about 50 metres east of it, as per the B.C. Supreme Court injunction Kinder Morgan obtained that spells out the limits for protest over Kinder Morgan’s pipeline expansion project, according to City of Burnaby city manager Lambert Chu.
“Camp Cloud and the Tsleil-Waututh watch house are very clearly articulated in the court order issued by the Supreme Court that they are allowed to stay,” said Chu.
Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan remains one of the fiercest opponents of Kinder Morgan’s $7.4-billion pipeline expansion project, but Chu said it is the city ’s legal interpretation that the court order supersedes the city’s bylaw prohibiting the occupation of a public right of way.
Chu said there have been complaints about traffic safety and expansion of the encampment, which is close to a residential neighbourhood, but the city is in “regular and frequent dialogue” with its occupants about issues that come up.
Burnaby council will also hear delegations from the camps and neighbourhood residents, Chu said, which the city hopes will result in a resolution to any concerns and “make it safer for (camp) occupants.”
Burnaby RCMP Supt. Chuck McDonald, in an emailed statement, said police are monitoring the area and will “take action on a case-bycase basis,” which has included four arrests of individuals from the camp for incidents unrelated to the pipeline protests.
“It should be noted that police have received co-operation from most people involved in ongoing demonstrations, particularly those who are located in the Forest Grove Park area,” McDonald said.
Black Wolf said the camp members “are not here to cause trouble with anyone,” including Kinder Morgan’s employees on the site.
The purpose of the camp, he said, is to be a visible, and physical presence of opposition to the Trans Mountain expansion, and get their message out about the project’s environmental risks.