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B.C. court rejects appeals of Trans Mountain pipeline protesters
25/09/20
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Sep 21, 2020
B.C.'s top court rejects appeals of two protesters who were arrested after blockading Kinder Morgan's pipeline.
The B.C. Court of Appeal has rejected the appeals of two people who were arrested and convicted of criminal contempt of court for blocking Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
On March 24, 2018, Jennifer Nathan was among about 60 protesters blocking access to Trans Mountain’s Burnaby terminal. She was arrested by police and later admitted that she had disobeyed a B.C. Supreme Court injunction in order to draw attention to her opposition to the pipeline. She received six months’ probation and was ordered to perform 150 hours of community service.
B.C. court rejects appeals of Trans Mountain pipeline protesters
On Aug. 20, 2018, David Anthony Gooderham was one of four people who sat in chairs blocking access to the West Ridge Marine Terminal. He was arrested and also admitted that he had violated the injunction. He was sentenced to 28 days of incarceration.
At trial, Nathan and Gooderham asked the judge for permission to raise the so-called defence of necessity and argue that they needed to disobey the injunction because of the dire threat posed by the effects of emissions on climate change. They proposed to call a number of experts to support their contention.
The trial judge rejected their application, finding that the defence of necessity had no reasonable prospect of success and refused to allow the appellants to call expert evidence.
On appeal, they raised a number of arguments, claiming that the trial judge’s analysis of the issues was legally flawed. They asked for a new trial and an opportunity for the evidence to be heard.
But in a ruling released Monday, a three-judge panel of the province’s top court rejected their arguments and dismissed the appeals.
In her written reasons, Justice Joyce DeWitt-Van Oosten concluded that the trial judge had correctly found that there was no “air of reality” to the defence of necessity raised by the appellants, given the narrowly defined ambit of that defence.
The judge said she didn’t doubt the sincerity of the appellants’ view that blocking the Trans Mountain sites was the best way to stop the pipeline expansion, or the sincerity of their claim that defying the injunction was a “last ditch gesture in despair.”
But she agreed with the Crown that alternatives existed and found that complying with the injunction was not demonstrably impossible, particularly in light of the fact that the appellants were given the chance to leave the area before they were arrested and to continue the protest in a nearby and lawful location.
Chief Justice Robert Bauman and Justice David Harris agreed with DeWitt-Van Oosten.
[Top photo: Construction continues on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion at the West Ridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby on July 2. PHOTO BY JASON PAYNE /PNG]
