Police arrest pipeline protesters
26 collared, five in custody as cops enforce court order in favour of Kinder Morgan
As pipeline protesters clashed with police on Burnaby Mountain — leading to 26 arrests — Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan said his government was ready for a “war” in the courts.
“This is going to be a war, and it’s going to be one that carries on for a number of years,” Corrigan said of the legal challenges his city has mounted in various levels of court, in attempts to stop Kinder Morgan’s work on Burnaby Mountain.
“The bigger argument that needs to be fought is: How much can the federal government impose its will on local governments and the ability of people to make local decisions?”
What had been a peaceful protest early Thursday became tense later that afternoon as officers ordered the crowd of over 100 chanting demonstrators to move back.
Police arrived on the scene Thursday at around 8:30 a.m. to enforce last week’s B.C. Supreme Court injunction ordering protesters to clear encampments blocking surveyors from doing work for the proposed expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline. Before noon Thursday, police had arrested 14 pipeline protesters on Burnaby Mountain, and by mid-afternoon, the protest camp was being removed by Kinder Morgan employees, according to a release by the Burnaby RCMP.
By Thursday evening, police confirmed 26 protesters were arrested, including five in custody.
Those released were done so on the condition that they no longer interfere or obstruct work being carried out by Trans Mountain, a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan.
Later in the day, Corrigan encouraged protesters not to put themselves in a situation where they could be arrested or hurt, and said his government was ready to take on Kinder Morgan and Canada’s National Energy Board in its own way.
Corrigan, a former criminal lawyer who grew up in East Vancouver, told The Province on Thursday that he and his city’s staff are well-prepared for the battles ahead.
“I didn’t look for the fight. But like any good east-end boy, if it comes to me, I’m not going to back down,” said Corrigan, recently re-elected to a fifth term as Burnaby mayor. “... We didn’t go looking for this fight ... but this will likely turn into a case that will have implications for cities right across Canada for a long time ... We’ve been dealing with 21stcentury problems using a 19th-century statute.”
While Corrigan expressed gratitude and respect for the police, he said he was “very disappointed” people were being arrested Thursday, and that the RCMP had to enforce the court order before the city’s legal appeal had been resolved.
On Wednesday, just a day before police moved in to clear the protest camp, the B.C. Court of Appeal heard an appeal from the City of Burnaby, asking that Kinder Morgan be required to follow the city’s bylaws.
The judge has yet to decide on the matter, but if she rules in the city’s favour, the mayor said, Kinder Morgan would need to stop work.
“This puts us in a terrible situation in the City of Burnaby,” he said.
“... We don’t want to be placed in a position of having our police department have to enforce an injunction that we never wanted to see happen. And if the bylaws had been enforced, none of those protesters would have to be on that mountain.”
Simon Fraser University Prof. Lynne Quarmby, who has been involved with the protest since early September, similarly hoped that the City of Burnaby’s legal challenge would have been allowed to work its way through the courts before the police moved in.
Quarmby expected that matter could be resolved as soon as Friday, and “definitely within days.”
“I’m disappointed that it had to come to this,” Quarmby said of Thursday’s arrests.
“What a shame that this happened today, because tomorrow we might learn that it’s all moot.”
By 1 p.m., staff and contractors from Trans Mountain had arrived at the site to begin preparing for geotechnical field studies, according to a news release from the company. Trans Mountain spokeswoman Ali Hounsell said Thursday: “Our priority is the safety of the general public, as well as our own team. We are up there, and we’ll get as much done as we can, safely ... We support the right to free speech and we fully believe we can carry out our work safely while people peacefully protest in proximity.”
The company intends to drill two, six-inch test holes, about 250 metres deep, to take core samples.
The studies are part of Kinder Morgan’s proposal to expand the existing Trans Mountain pipeline between Edmonton and Burnaby.
After Thursday’s arrests, several protesters said they weren’t sure what the immediate future held for Burnaby Mountain, but they were confident the opposition was far from over.
Gene McGuckin, a member of protest group BROKE, or Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion, said: “... There will continue to be resistance.”