A B.C. Supreme Court judge has dropped civil contempt charges against dozens of protesters who were arrested at an anti-pipeline protest near Vancouver.
The order came Thursday after Kinder Morgan acknowledged it had used incorrect GPS co-ordinates when it sought an injunction related to its Trans Mountain pipeline.
More than 100 people have been arrested on Burnaby Mountain, including Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, who crossed the police line earlier Thursday.
An application by Kinder Morgan to extend an injunction keeping protesters away from two drilling sites on Burnaby Mountain was rejected by the B.C. Supreme Court Thursday, meaning the site must be cleared of excavation work by Dec. 1.
In denying the company's request to extend the injunction to Dec. 12, the judge also ruled that all civil contempt charges against those arrested so far have been thrown out due to errors in the injunction.
Earlier, anti-pipeline protesters had locked themselves to the front doors of the court in an attempt to block Kinder Morgan's access.
Is there a place for acts of conscience in our society?
Protesters on Burnaby Mountain have proven they feel strongly enough about stopping a proposed Kinder Morgan oil pipeline that they are willing to be arrested.
No doubt there are many who will dismiss their protests as foolish and misguided. Others will not envy the hassles that inevitably attend being arrested and charged.
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.
RCMP arrested 14 protesters on Burnaby Mountain this morning and are enforcing Kinder Morgan's injunction against pipeline opponents (according to activists, the number of protesters arrested is closer to 20). Kinder Morgan crews are now reportedly back at work on the mountain.
"I'm really sad. I've been fighting tears all morning," said Lynne Quarmby, an SFU scientist who is one of six citizens that Kinder Morgan has filed a multi-million dollar civil suit against.
cientist Lynne Quarmby -- the chair of SFU's molecular biology and biochemistry department, and a face of public opposition against pipeline giant Kinder Morgan -- has just been arrested at Burnaby Mountain.
The governing Liberals in BC and Conservatives in Canada insist that jobs, public revenues and economic growth all depend on expanding fossil fuel exports. Christie Clark’s Liberals won the 2013 BC election promising a future of jobs and rising public revenues based on the export of liquified natural gas. Now two years later faced with widespread protests and declining oil and gas prices, no LNG project has proceeded.
CALGARY - Kinder Morgan is overplaying the economic benefits and downplaying the costs of its proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, according to a report released Monday.
Simon Fraser University's Centre for Public Policy Research teamed with The Goodman Group Ltd., a California-based consulting firm, to examine the estimated impacts of the project.
The report "strongly recommends that the citizens and decision-makers of B.C. and Metro Vancouver reject this pipeline, which is neither in the economic nor public interest of B.C. and Metro Vancouver."
The B.C. Supreme Court will decide by Nov. 17 whether to grant Kinder Morgan an injunction to stop anti-pipeline protesters from interfering with survey work on Burnaby Mountain.
The pipeline company also launched a multimillion civil suit against the five pipeline opponents, claiming, assault, trespassing and intimidation, and protesters are anxiously waiting for the Associate Chief Justice Austin Cullen's decision.
