Anti-pipeline protests continue at B.C. Kinder Morgan terminals
Green Party leader Elizabeth May was arrested at the Kinder Morgan facility on Burnaby Mountain Friday morning after defying a court injunction that banned protesters from disrupting construction work at both Trans Mountain terminals.
BURNABY, B.C. – Anti-pipeline protesters are continuing to demonstrate near Kinder Morgan’s terminal.
Dozens of people followed Indigenous leaders in a march toward a gate to the Burnaby Terminal on Saturday, with organizers saying more than 70 of them were prepared to be arrested.
WATCH: Global News’ coverage of the Trans Mountain pipeline dispute
Protesters who tied themselves to the gate are violating a court injunction prohibiting them from five metres of the site and risk arrest.
An Indigenous youth leader who helped lead the march, noted the health and environmental risks of an oil or diluted bitumen spill are not worth it.
“We’re taking a stand against the Kinder Morgan pipeline. We’re standing up to bullies. Justin Trudeau can’t do his job by securing the safety of our future, so we’ll do it for him,” Cedar George-Parker said.
About 115 people, including Green Party Leader and MP Elizabeth May and Burnaby South MP Kennedy Stewart, have been arrested in the past week.
Ocean Hyland of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation said her generation has learned about the importance of protecting the environment from their elders.
“And we’re at that stage where we’re thinking about those future generations and how we’re going to carry through those teachings and carry through those ceremonies for the generations to come to protect that land that we’re here on today,” she said.
The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project would triple the amount of oil products flowing from Alberta to B.C.’s coast.
The federal government approved the $7.4 billion expansion in 2016, but the project faces significant opposition in B.C. by environmental groups and the provincial government.
Thousands of people have been rallying to protest the project and Premier John Horgan has raised concerns about the pipeline’s possible environmental and economic impact.
In an e-mail to Global News last week, Kinder Morgan wrote safety is its first priority when it comes to its operations and construction sites.
The e-mail went on to say, the company “respects the rights to peacefully protest and there are many ways to express opinions in a safe and lawful manner.
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