Sides regroup in wake of court injunction
Northern Pulp says safety of survey crew remains a stop priority
Survey crews retained by Northern Pulp will not be returning to Pictou Harbour until plans surrounding safety and an RCMP response are hashed out.
“We have to complete some logistics, such as fully understanding the safety measures as well as law enforcement,” said Kathy Cloutier, director of corporate communications for Paper Excellence Canada.
Northern Pulp won an injunction against protesters Dec. 18, but there is still no date set as to when survey work will resume in the Northumberland Strait.
“We’ll deal with that when the time comes,” said Allan McCarthy, with the Northumberland Fishermen’s Association. “There’s no structured plan in place right now.”
McCarthy is one of seven individuals named in a court affidavit sworn Dec. 3 by Colin Toole, an employee of CSR GeoSurveys Limited. In April, Northern Pulp retained CSR to survey the undersea route for a first proposed effluent treatment pipe.
Outlined by Toole in the affidavit are multiple incidents described by CSR crew as being “intimidating.” Toole alleges individuals threatened to “kill” crew members of the SeaQuest, a sixmetre fibreglass vessel outfitted with survey equipment.
According to sworn statements made by an employee with CSR GeoSurveys Limited, intimidating incidents began April 11 when SeaQuest was running its first survey line out of Pictou Harbour.
Two boats approached at high speed and circled the SeaQuest multiple times while their pilots shouted at the surveyors, according to the statement. A similar incident happened on April 19 when another fishing vessel passed within 10 metres of the SeaQuest’s bow at high speed, it said.
Videos collaborating the survey crewman’s account were also submitted as evidence.
In November, Toole also alleges an individual named in the affidavit told surveyors: “We are great hunters in Pictou Harbour. If you come back to Pictou Harbour you are going to be gone. We are real good shots.”
“That’s an allegation,” said McCarthy. “I don’t think it was proven in court. We will deal with that when the court date comes.”
“Right now, we have three active criminal code investigations resulting from complaints over survey work with Northern Pulp,” said district commander for the Pictou County RCMP, Staff Sgt. Addie Maccallum. “These are ongoing investigations and we’ll look into those fully and completely. If anything comes up in the future, we’ll address them in the same way.”
For their part, RCMP says the responsibility for a safety plan for future survey crews falls to Northern Pulp.
“For this interim injunction, if there was anything to be reported as a breach of a court order we’d investigate it as a criminal offence,” said Maccallum.
“Public safety is obviously our number one concern, and while we respect everyone’s right to peaceful assembly there’s obviously things that police won’t tolerate. That would be any acts of violence, criminal offences or intimidation by any parties.”