B.C. Supreme Court throws out civil contempt charges against dozens of Burnaby Mountain protesters

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      A B.C. Supreme Court judge has thrown out civil contempt charges against dozens of oil pipeline opponents arrested on Burnaby Mountain.

      Today (November 27), Judge Austin Cullen also dismissed an application by pipeline proponent Kinder Morgan to extend an injunction order against protesters.

      Simon Fraser University literature professor Stephen Collis, who speaks for a group called Caretakers of Burnaby Mountain, welcomed these actions as a “real victory”.

      “We can actually win against these giant corporations,” Collis told the Straight in a phone interview from the conservation area.

      Collis, a poet and activist, couldn’t make it to the courthouse, but his academic colleague, Lynne Quarmby, who chairs SFU’s department of molecular biology and biochemistry, did and the two have been in constant communication throughout the day.

      Quarmby was previously arrested after crossing a line set up by the RCMP to prevent protesters from blocking crews doing survey and drilling work for Kinder Morgan.

      “The courts have sort of sided with us, and essentially are not believing what Kinder Morgan is trying to tell them,” Collis said.

      Collis and Quarmby are among those facing a civil suit filed by Kinder Morgan for allegedly obstructing field work in connection with its application with the National Energy Board to twin its pipeline.

      Kinder Morgan wanted the court to extend the injunction order to keep out protesters until December 12. With the judge ruling against it, this means that its survey and drilling work on Burnaby Mountain would have to end on Monday (December 1).

      The civil contempt charges were thrown out after it was heard in court that Kinder Morgan had provided the wrong coordinates in its earlier application for an injunction order.
      “There’s a long way to go,” Collis said. “People are determined to stop this pipeline. This is an important stage, but it’s just one step.”

      Comments

      3 Comments

      notrust

      Nov 28, 2014 at 11:54am

      Kinder Morgan can't get the coordinates right for a line of tape, why would we trust this foreign corporation when it counts?

      smiley

      Nov 28, 2014 at 12:48pm

      Wow, what a technicality ! The protestors were guilty of what charged with, No matter what the coordinates were.

      Martin Dunphy

      Nov 28, 2014 at 3:44pm

      smiley:

      Thanks for the post, and as they say on <em>Futurama</em>: "You are technically correct, the best kind of correct."