suits

SLAPP suits misunderstand the nature of public protest

Alan Dutton, an organizer for Burnaby Residents Opposed to Kinder Morgan Expansion (BROKE), will not settle in the $5.6 million lawsuit brought against him by Kinder Morgan. The lawsuit targets five protesters for conspiring to intimidate the survey crews on Burnaby Mountain. While four of the defendants have settled, Dutton refuses to do so, on the basis that the lawsuit is meant to suppress the right to protest. The BC Supreme Court has ruled that the suit is a justifiable exercise of Kinder Morgan’s legal rights (by suing ordinary people for $5.6 million). However, the consequences of the actions of…

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