Police arrested at least 12 pipeline protesters on Burnaby Mountain this morning beginning at 8:00 a.m. and ordered the remaining protesters to move their camp or face arrest.
A dozen officers arrived at the site to read off the injunction, after which they arrested four protesters who remained in the camp.
Many of the remaining protesters moved across the road as directed by the police, but it remains unclear whether or not the protesters at the second camp, which lies deeper in the woods, will be arrested.
One protester has rigged themselves up in a tree above the second site and is refusing to come down.
The road leading up to the protests at Centennial Way and Burnaby Mountain Parkway continues to be blocked by police and reporters have been ordered to stand behind tape laid out by police.
The police have also set up a perimeter and an area in which protesters are allowed to be present
Although he is out of town speaking at events this week, Stephen Collis, the spokesperson for the protesters and an SFU professor, posted in the Stop Kinder Morgan on Burnaby Mountain Facebook group today, “Strength and love to all on this difficult day.”
Kinder Morgan released a statement at 1:00 p.m. today regarding the resumption of work: “As of 12:45 p.m., Trans Mountain staff and contractors have arrived at Burnaby Mountain to begin preparing the work sites for our geotechnical field studies.”
In the statement, the company expressed that it was “pleased that the majority of the individuals occupying the area complied with the order and continue to exercise their rights to express their views in a respectful manner, while allowing [their] team to begin the work safely.”
The crews will dismantle the blockade and hand over any items it finds on the sites to RCMP.
This story is currently breaking and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Interestingly enough, every time I see pictures of the ‘protesters’, they all seem to be Caucasians (plus a few indoctrinated First Nations People), and either idealistic student age or retired or almost retired Caucasians, all with the ‘lefty’ look (aged hippies).
Not at all reflective of the local demographics.
Also interestingly enough, students (subsidized 10.000$ each) and seniors (subsidized 55,000$ each), are the main benefactors of Canadian Oil. The majority demographic, those in-between these two groups are just about non-existent in the ‘protester’ crowd. I guess they are too bust working to pay the ‘protester’s’ subsidies.