BURNABY, B.C. - The RCMP arrested protesters Thursday as officers enforced a court injunction to dismantle a protest camp and snuff out a sacred fire at a site where the Trans Mountain pipeline ends in Burnaby, B.C.
Cpl. Daniela Panesar said police began enforcing an order obtained by the City of Burnaby last week from the B.C. Supreme Court.
An update posted on social media by the detachment said 11 people were removed from the site known as Camp Cloud.
"Five were subsequently arrested and have since been released from custody," the post said.
Police said in a news release that a family of three living at the camp was being helped to acquire emergency shelter.
Environmental activist Tzeporah Berman, who works with the Watch House group that has an Indigenous protest site near Camp Cloud, said she understood the arrested demonstrators promised to stay away.
"The folks agreed to sign the terms and they were released," she said in a phone interview.
Officers moved in after continuing to talk with camp residents in the hope that they would obey the injunction and leave within a 48-hour deadline set by the court, the RCMP said in a news release.
That deadline passed Sunday and protesters at the camp said Monday they were prepared to protect a sacred fire, which has been burning since the camp was set up late last year. They also said they planned to tie themselves to structures rather than obey the injunction.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Gomery was specific in the injunction that the fire needed to be put out because it was burning in dry conditions near an aviation fuel tank farm.
Camp residents had
refused requests to extinguish the fire
despite the increasing risk of wildfires.
RCMP placed a large exclusion zone around Camp Cloud on Thursday as the dismantling began. They said they would arrest anyone, including media, who violated the zone.
"Our paramount concern is safety," said Panesar.
More:
www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/pipeline-protest-camp-to-be-dismantled-rcmp/
VANCOUVER — Pipeline protesters who were ordered to take down their camp outside a Kinder Morgan terminal in Burnaby, B.C., are instead preparing to tie themselves to its structures in anticipation of police intervention.
Spokeswoman Kwitsel Tatel said Monday that some of the camp's protesters have offered to protect a sacred fire that has been burning around the clock at the settlement known as Camp Cloud.
"There have been exercises that Camp Cloud has applied in order to reject police brutality by tying ourselves down to the sacred fire and some of our structures," she said in a phone interview Monday. "Bodies have been offered up to protect the sacred fire as of (Sunday.)"
The camp has grown since November from a single trailer to include a two-storey wooden structure, a cabin, an outdoor shower, more than a dozen tents and multiple vehicles and trailers.
On Friday, a B.C. Supreme Court judge granted the City of Burnaby an injunction ordering protesters to remove all structures, shelters and vehicles from the site outside a Kinder Morgan tank farm within 48 hours — a time window that passed on Sunday.
The camp has grown since November from a single trailer to include a two-storey wooden structure, a cabin, an outdoor shower, more than a dozen tents and multiple vehicles and trailers.
On Friday, a B.C. Supreme Court judge granted the City of Burnaby an injunction ordering protesters to remove all structures, shelters and vehicles from the site outside a Kinder Morgan tank farm within 48 hours — a time window that passed on Sunday.
In his judgment, Justice Geoffrey Gomery also ordered that the fire be extinguished due to very dry conditions and its proximity to an aviation fuel site.
Several protesters remain on site, but Tatel said she left the camp at the request of her children after someone sped along the road near the camp and then threatened to strangle her.
"While Tatel has argued that order should still protect Camp Cloud, Dattani said the makeshift settlement has grown significantly since then, creating hazards.
Tatel said she has written a letter to the Queen of England, the Governor General of Canada and a Coast Salish chief asking them to intervene.
On Friday, Gomery said he was concerned about "vigilantes" who had begun threatening to deal with the camp themselves. Protesters have also expressed violence, he said, noting one threatened to "drop kick" and "kill" a city official.
https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/pipeline-protesters-practise-resisting-police-201507459.html