Canada's Green Party leader arrested at Kinder Morgan pipeline protest
Federal Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, along with the NDP MP for Burnaby South, Kennedy Stewart, were arrested at the Kinder Morgan pipeline protest in Burnaby on Friday.
BREAKING: MP @ElizabethMay has just been arrested. #cdnpoli #StopKM pic.twitter.com/aJxOgWPqnn
— Greenpeace Canada (@GreenpeaceCA) March 23, 2018
The pair were arrested for defying a court injunction that states protesters cannot obstruct, impede or otherwise prevent access to Trans Mountain Facilities.
Kinder Morgan has called the RCMP to arrest elected Members of Parliament,@kennedystewart & @MayElizabeth as they block the corporation’s Burnaby Mountain front gate. #StopKM #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/NdLEWy4qur
— Greenpeace Canada (@GreenpeaceCA) March 23, 2018
The arrests of the two MPs on Friday follows a busy day for Burnaby police on Thursday, in which 18 people were arrested arrested after breaching the injunction.
“These demonstrators were provided a copy of the injunction and given an opportunity to leave,” said Burnaby RCMP. “Despite being asked a number of times to leave, these demonstrators failed to do so and were arrested. ”
It’s unknown at this point what – if any – charges May will face in light of the incident, but for her part, the federal party leader said she was simply keeping her word.
“I said I would stand in solidarity with the First Nations opposing Kinder Morgan and I am keeping my word,” she said, after being released. “Non-violent civil disobedience is legitimate as a means of expression but it is a step I have not taken before.”
May recalled “standing on the logging roads Clayoquot Sound in 1993,” but said she “stepped aside when asked to do so.”
Now, she said, “I can no longer step aside.”
But May also said she doesn’t take the violation of a court injunction lightly.
“I await the court ruling on the legitimacy of the permit issued to Kinder Morgan. Unfortunately, the federal government and the Texas corporation are not awaiting the ruling of the Federal Court,” she said. “Kinder Morgan is committed to acts constituting irreparable harm ‒ to the environment and to indigenous rights.”
In the meantime, May said she will “continue to stand in solidarity with the First Nations on whose land these acts of vandalism are now being committed.”
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