The City of Surrey says it’s negotiating with protesters who forced crews to halt tree removal in a popular park.
The work, which is being done to make way for a new road connecting the Guildford area with Surrey City Centre, ground to a halt on Wednesday morning.
At least two protesters decided to cross the fence line and enter the woods, blocking equipment, then chaining themselves to trees.
The city says it will try and talk things out with the demonstrators before getting a court injunction to remove them.
“We’re going to continue discussing with them to leave on their own accord in a peaceful way,” said Surrey LRT early works lead Victor Jhingan.
But protester Trevor Cox said he’s prepared to be arrested, and won’t resist.
“Well it’s ruthless destruction, un-democratically, I believe, where if it was a fair amount of time for us to collect the signatures and I probably would still be upset about it,” said Cox.
Equipment was removed after RCMP entered the woods to survey the situation.
Workers say it’s a dangerous situation because when the protesters entered the park they came very close to the equipment that was removing a tree.
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The City of Surrey is meeting to discuss a possible court injunction.
If granted, the RCMP would have the authority to remove protesters from the park.
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