Straight Talk

Burnaby RCMP arrest Kinder Morgan pipeline protesters for ignoring court order

by Charlie Smith on March 17th, 2018 at 7:31 PM
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      More than two dozen people have been taken into custody today for standing at the gate into Kinder Morgan's tank farm in Burnaby.

      The arrests came after demonstrators remained in front of the facility for four hours in defiance of a court order.

      “Today we’ve remembered and embraced the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who believed in the power of civil disobedience to shift public opinion," high-profile Indigenous protester Clayton Thomas-Muller said as he was being hauled away by the Mounties. "We want to demonstrate that we mean business. We’re going to do whatever it takes, and by any means necessary, and we’ll show up day after day until we win this fight.

      "We encourage our allies, native and non-native alike, to join us in this collective action,” the Mathias Colomb Cree activist added.

      Another person arrested was Janet Paisley, a 76-year-old retired Montessori teacher from Langley.

      "I've rarely had a speeding ticket but I'm appalled at Kinder Morgan and I'm very disappointed with Trudeau," Paisley said.

      More than 23,000 people have given a pledge as "Coast Protectors" to do what they can to stop the $7.4-billion Kinder Morgan pipeline project from being completed.

      Karen Mahon

      The Texas energy giant won federal approval to nearly triple diluted bitumen shipments from Alberta to B.C. through its Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project. 

      That would result in a seven-fold increase in oil-tanker traffic in Burrard Inlet.

      Protesters are hoping that by delaying construction, they'll persuade Kinder Morgan investors that it's not worth the financial risks to proceed.

      Three years ago, Kinder Morgan estimated that the project would cost $5.4 billion. It then rose to $6.8 billion before being pegged at $7.4 billion last year.

      When the last cost estimate was released, the company said that 13 shippers had made 15- to 20-year commitments to push 708,000 barrells per day through the pipeline.

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