Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan tells Kinder Morgan pipeline opponents he's ready to "get arrested to stop this"

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      The mayor of Burnaby has said he is prepared to get arrested and see his career in politics come to an end if that’s what it takes to stop a proposed expansion of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline.

      Speaking at a May 20 community meeting, Derek Corrigan told a full house he would do whatever it takes to prevent the project from going ahead.

      “We’re going to ride this thing through to the very end, because if we’re not going to win it here, we’re going to win it in the courts, and we’re going to continue to fight,” he said as reported by the Burnaby Now’s Jennifer Moreau. “If we go to court, we’re going to go to court with clean hands and ensure we’ve done everything humanly possible before I stand with you and probably 10,000 other people and get arrested to stop this.

      “That’s a hard thing to promise for a lawyer and a mayor,” Corrigan continued. “It will probably be the end of my career. But if I end my career on that note, it will be something that I’m very proud of, that I stood my ground.”

      Corrigan was also critical of the National Energy Board (NEB), the federal body conducting a review of the project. (One day earlier, an expert intervener for the NEB withdrew from the Trans Mountain review process with a critique that described it as “a parochial board steeped in Calgary petro culture, run by corporate interests”.)

      The proposed expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline would triple the current amount of diluted bitumen transported from the Alberta tar sands to the Lower Mainland, increasing the number of oil tankers moving through Metro Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet from 60 to 400 ships per year.

      The City of Vancouver and its mayor, Gregor Robertson, have also staked out positions against the project, as has the board of Metro Vancouver.

      The route Kinder Morgan has planned for a new section of pipeline would tunnel through Burnaby Mountain. That prospect has turned the hilltop, which serves as the home of Simon Fraser University’s main campus, into a rallying point for opponents of the project.

      In November 2014, a large demonstration gathered on Burnaby Mountain in an attempt to block Kinder Morgan from conducting survey work there. At the time, Corrigan told CBC News the city was attempting to stop the pipeline’s construction in the courts.

      “I don't want people to be arrested. I think that that is a last resort, and we're still in the middle of a process that is going to take, probably, years to settle out,” Corrigan said on November 25. “We have taken every action we had within the legal remedies available to us in order to stop the project from proceeding….I still have faith in the courts.”

      Burnaby RCMP eventually arrested dozens of protesters, including Tamo Campos, the grandson of renowned environmentalist David Suzuki.

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      Comments

      8 Comments

      Earl Richards

      May 22, 2015 at 1:19pm

      Derek, stand tall for the Burnaby Moutaineers. With over 400 tankers transiting the Haro Strait, it is a disaster waiting to happen. No toxic, tar sands for BC. Keep British Columbia beautiful.

      Jen Turner

      May 22, 2015 at 11:01pm

      Mr. Corrigan talks dramatically about "risking his career", knowing full well that he is just gaining greater popularity (and political power) by doing so. No one can ever say the guy isn't a smart politician.

      Michael Harding

      May 23, 2015 at 11:53am

      derek corrigan deserves the order of Canada for his courage persistence and pure guts. A true Canadian hero

      Way to go Mayor Corrigan!

      May 23, 2015 at 2:59pm

      I remember how on task of were during the westridge oil spill from the pipeline. I was proud to have you as a mayor then & I'm proud of you now. Thank you for sticking up for Burnaby & our beautiful BC Coastline.
      -Westridge Resident

      Rauld

      May 23, 2015 at 10:49pm

      Thank you Mayor for fighting to keep British Columbia beautiful

      Relevant Data

      May 24, 2015 at 10:55am

      It's wonderful how people with such narrow minds are making this guy a hero despite the fact that he's responsible for such unbridled development from one end of Burnaby to the other. He's succumbed to massive amounts of foreign investments and is destroying block after block of single family homes and perfectly fine low-rise apartment buildings, to build massive condo towers for the Asian market - take a moment to look at the eastern skyline.

      He has also bulldozed many acres of important marshland along SE Marine Dr for shopping centers and industrial parks. You can make a bet that once he's destroyed all of the neighbourhoods that Burnaby Mt will be stripped bare for development. Meanwhile his plan for housing the homeless is a Sktrain ticket to Vancouver. Corrigan is no hero.

      madlove

      May 26, 2015 at 8:46pm

      I didn't once see his a** up at Burnaby Mountain last winter