WATCH: Anti-pipeline protesters are trying to stop work on Burnaby Mountain. Ted Chernecki is at Burnaby Mountain with more on the story.
VANCOUVER – Burnaby RCMP say they are not planning to make any arrests today at the Kinder Morgan protest on Burnaby Mountain.
A judge has ordered protesters to leave the site by 4 p.m. this afternoon and to stop obstructing Kinder Morgan crews, however Burnaby RCMP Staff Sgt. John Bois told media that they have no plans to make arrests related to the injunction today.
“While we are under a court directed enforcement order, it does recognize our authority of discretionary powers,” said Bois. “This discretionary authority allows police to take time to assess the situation.”
Bois said he was unable to give a timeline for their assessment.
While arrests may not happen tonight, protester Clarissa Antone says they are willing to be arrested no matter what the consequences.
“Even if we get arrested, we’ll get arrested for our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren because we need to protect this land for all of our people,” she says.
Kinder Morgan workers are trying to do survey work in advance of a proposed expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline.
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On Facebook, more than 600 people say they planned to attend a rally on Burnaby Mountain Monday afternoon to bear witness after the deadline and to support the protesters.
Carl Perrin, spokesperson for Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion (BROKE), says they will be on the mountain in support.
“We’re going to be up there with a silent vigil for the death of justice,” he says. “And I know that some of the caretakers are still there and will stay there beyond four o’clock. I think the RCMP might give them some extra time because that’s what they did, what the police did in Vancouver at Oppenheimer Park.”
Perrin says BROKE will be in a non-arrest zone, likely across the street from the camp. “The encampment is right on Centennial Way and so we will be watching from across the street, silently with our candles,” he says.
WATCH: Perrin speaks on BC1:
On Friday the judge said the right to protest did not outweigh the potential economic harm to Kinder Morgan. A lawyer for the company argued in court last week that the activists have prevented field studies to build the Trans Mountain pipeline in the area, which were approved by the National Energy Board.
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