Judge robbed protesters of right to civil disobedience

The B.C. Supreme Court smeared its robes with political tar sand by issuing the injunction in the Burnaby Mountain pipeline dispute.

In a bit of legal sleight-of-hand, Associate Chief Justice Austin Cullen robbed protesters of their right to civil disobedience, fettered their defences and sullied the court.

He ought to have known better: Members of his own bench have railed for years against this use of injunctions as a substitute for police doing their job.

Since the NDP government first adopted this policy to subvert environmental and First Nations civil disobedience, smart judges have slammed it.