Former prisoners of conscience Will Offley and Rita Wong will attend gathering near Trans Mountain tank farm

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      The sentences meted out last month to pipeline protesters and long-time activists Will Offley and Rita Wong shocked the activist community.

      B.C. Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Affleck ordered Offley, a nurse, to serve 14 days in jail for violating the judge's injunction regarding protests near Trans Mountain facilities.

      Offley was allowed out of the North Fraser Pretrial Centre after nine days.

      Affleck imposed a 28-day sentence on Wong, a poet and university professor, who ended up spending 18 days inthe Alouette Corectional Centre for Women.

      On Wednesday (September 4) at noon, Offley and Wong will attend a ceremonial event to thank the land and water at the Coast Salish Watch House, which is by the east gate of the Trans Mountain tank farm.

      Parking is available at 8505 Forest Grove Drive or at the Burnaby 200 soccer field for anyone who wants to attend.

      Wong's sentence came after Affleck dismissed an application from Wong and Mary Beam to recuse himself.

      "These proceedings place Justice Affleck in the position of having to judge whether his order was scorned," Wong and Beam wrote in the eight-page document filed in court. "Accordingly, it may reasonably be perceived that he lacks the neutrality required for fair judicial assessment of the facts and the law and has a self-interest in maintaining his own order."

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