A North Vancouver restaurant owner is speaking out about an anti-pipeline protest that, he says, went too far.
The same protesters who staged demonstrations on Burnaby Mountain invaded a private dinner at Fishworks restaurant attended by Kinder Morgan employees on Saturday night.
Protesters, many with the words Climate Justice on tape over their mouths, barged into the restaurant after they’d found out the entire room was booked for a private dinner party with a direct link to Kinder Morgan.
The protesters were drawing attention to climate change and disasters such as Typhoon Haiyan, saying as a company that builds pipelines and extracts fossil fuels, Kinder Morgan is to blame.
But the demonstration over the weekend actually targeted employees of Vancouver Wharves, the company that’s owned by Kinder Morgan, but the workers have nothing to do with the pipeline project.
Owner of Fishworks Shallaw Kadir says targeting the restaurant crossed a line.
“I know there’s real issues going on about this oil pipeline,” says Kadir. “The freedom of speech, I agree totally, but what they did was really unfair, coming in here shouting at these guests. They chose the wrong place.”
But protester Tamp Campos says it’s not his group that was out of line.
“I think the line has already been crossed by these companies…I think they are the ones pushing the boundaries first,” says Campos.
It’s unclear how the group even found out about the private party, because it wasn’t booked under the company name.
When RCMP arrived after several people called 9-1-1, the protesters left the restaurant and the party continued.
With files from Jill Bennett
Comments