RCMP arrest pipeline protesters at Kinder Morgan site in Burnaby
Burnaby RCMP began arresting protesters on Saturday for violating the terms of an injunction ordering people to stay at least five metres from sites where work has begun in Burnaby on the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion.
Some 28 demonstrators were being arrested after they blocked Kinder Morgan’s tank farm front gate for hours, according to a news release from the protesters Saturday.
Police confirmed the number in a news release Saturday night, saying “a number of demonstrators breached a court ordered injunction which stated that they could not obstruct, impede or otherwise prevent access to Trans Mountain Facilities.”
Each of the demonstrators has since been released, police said, and all will appear in court in the coming weeks.
Amina Moustaqim-Barrette, who spoke on behalf of a coalition of demonstrators under the banner Protect the Inlet, said each protester was ready to be arrested to send a clear message against Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
“The community isn’t going to lay down and just accept that this pipeline is going to be built,” she said. “They’re going to show their opposition very loudly and very purposefully.”
Twenty-eight demonstrators began blocking the entrance to Kinder Morgan’s work site at about 10 a.m. PT Saturday. Four hours later, some of the protesters tied themselves to the gate using zip ties, Moustaqim-Barrette said.
Burnaby RCMP moved in soon after, reading out the B.C. Supreme Court injunction granted Thursday to Kinder Morgan, she said.
Moustaqim-Barrette said all 28 demonstrators had been arrested by Saturday evening after what she described as a “very peaceful” demonstration.
RCMP arrest pipeline protesters at Kinder Morgan site in Burnaby | Vancouver Sun