Kinder Morgan has been granted an injunction, allowing it to call for the arrest of any person within 50 metres of its property line.
The ongoing battle over the Trans Mountain expansion heated up today in Vancouver as a British Columbia Supreme Court judge granted the injunction one day ahead of a planned protest.
The planned protest for Saturday, March 10 will continue, in spite of today's hearing.
The protest is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. at the Lake City Way Skytrain station in Burnaby, where thousands are expected to participate in a march and finish with a rally.
March 10h Tsleil-Waututh Nation will gather to #ProtecttheInlet from Kinder Morgan Pipeline. RT and sign https://t.co/DuZNx8N9LD
— Idle No More (@IdleNoMore4) March 3, 2018
A court date has been scheduled for next Wednesday, where a hearing will determine whether a longer interim injunction will be granted.
At the hearing, Stand.earth plans to file an affidavit in support of the defendants, arguing the lawsuit wrongfully limits nonviolent public protest.
“Kinder Morgan just went to extremes to get a court order that stops people from so much as walking their dogs on the public path next to their terminal,” said Karen Mahon, Campaign Director, Stand.earth. “The oil giant is obviously threatened by the ongoing peaceful protest against the Trans Mountain Pipeline...but we won’t be threatened.”
Since 2012, Tsleil-Waututh Nation (TWN) has been opposed to the Kinder Morgan pipeline and tanker project due to the threat it poses to the ecological and cultural health of the region and its communities.
"Although direct action has a long history of playing a role in moments of important social change Tsleil-Waututh Nation is focused on fighting Kinder Morgan in the courts," stated a spokesperson from the Tsleil - Waututh Nation.
"For Tsleil-Waututh Nation, the People of the Inlet, it is our sacred obligation to protect the water. In our opposition to Kinder Morgan, we are many people paddling in the same direction."
The $7.4-billion Trans Mountain expansion, operated by Texas oil company, Kinder Morgan, was approved by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2016.
It plans to link the Alberta tar sands to the B.C. coast with a 1,150 - kilometre pipeline.
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