Independent mayoral candidate Kennedy Stewart can no longer claim to be the only aspiring civic politician to have been arrested for demonstrating against the TMX pipeline project.

Today, COPE council candidate Jean Swanson and seven other protesters who were hauled away by Burnaby RCMP for violating a B.C Supreme Court injunction ordering people to remain at least five metres from the gate.

"I’m here because it’s so gross that Trudeau is spending billions of our public dollars on this pipeline project that doesn’t have consent of the First Nations of this land and which will create more climate-destroying emissions and risks catastrophic bitumen spills on this coast,” Swanson said. “All those billions of dollars could do something good, like provide clean water to Indigenous communities or end homelessness."

In March, Stewart was also arrested for violating the injunction. He was later ordered to pay a $500 fine.

Texas-based Kinder Morgan owns the Trans Mountain system and has won federal approval to triple diluted bitumen shipments to 890,000 barrels per day from Alberta to Burnaby.

In May, the federal government agreed to buy Kinder Morgan's Canadian assets for $4.5 billion and complete the expansion project.

The deal is expected to close in August.

“Spending billions of taxpayer dollars on an oil pipeline, given the threat of climate change, is not making Canada a better country," Swanson said.