Green Party leader arrested at protest
NDP MP also detained after demonstration against pipeline
BURNABY, B.C.— Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and a New Democrat MP were arrested Friday at a protest against Kinder Morgan’s expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline as demonstrations spread across the country. May and New Democrat MP Kennedy Stewart were processed by RCMP officers inside a tent at the Trans Mountain pipeline terminal in Burnaby, B.C. The two MPs acknowledged they risked arrest after the B.C. Supreme Court placed limits on where demonstrators could protest in an injunction issued last week.
As she was led away by police, May said the permits issued for the project to proceed did not respect the rights of Indigenous people on their territory.
“The commitment to build a pipeline in 2018 when we are in climate crisis is a crime against future generations and I will not be part of it,” she said.
After she was released by police, May said she has been charged with civil contempt for blocking a road, which is not a criminal charge. She said she must appear back in court on June 14.
In a news release, May said she respects the country’s courts.
“I will continue to stand in solidarity with the First Nations on whose land these acts of vandalism are now being committed. Non-violent civil disobedience is the moral obligation of the climate-aware, responsible citizen.”
Protest organizers said earlier Friday almost 100 people have been arrested since demonstrations in Burnaby began.
The injunction prohibits activists from getting within five metres of Kinder Morgan’s two terminal sites on Burnaby Mountain where work related to the pipeline expansion is underway.
Before his arrest, Stewart said he was supporting his constituents in Burnaby South knowing the legal implications he faced.
“I feel I have no choice at this point but to do this to amplify the deep, deep opposition to this project that is felt by my constituents,” he said.