A legal battle to grant Trans Mountain a permanent injunction to block protesters from its terminal construction site continues Thursday in B.C. Supreme Court.
Company lawyer Maureen Killoran told a judge on Wednesday that activists have conspired to intensify blockades and disrupt construction projects at the Burnaby Mountain and Westbridge Marine terminals before a mid-March deadline to meet environmental standards.
READ MORE: Trans Mountain hoping to get permanent injunction against protesters in court
The project to build a new terminal will link up with the federally-approved Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to increase the flow of bitumen from Alberta to the B.C. coast.
Trans Mountain, a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan, listed 15 people, along with John Doe, Jane Doe, and “unnamed persons” in a notice of claim asking for an injunction for a project that the federal government approved in November 2016.
READ MORE: Alberta minister apologizes for calling B.C. government ‘s**theads’
Justice Kenneth Affleck granted the temporary injunction on Friday, saying it would restrict protesters from coming within 50 metres of the facilities where protests began last November.
But Casey Leggett, a lawyer representing one of the defendants, argued a 50-metre buffer zone as part of the interim injunction is too broad because it covers private property and even prohibits residents from using a nearby trail.
The judge suggested Wednesday that not granting an injunction would prevent the company from continuing the work it is legally entitled to do, but he has not yet come to a final decision.
In recent weeks, feuding has ramped up between Alberta and B.C. over the Trans Mountain pipeline twinning, which would triple the amount of oil flowing from the Edmonton area to the port in Burnaby.
The B.C. government has vowed to do everything possible to stop the project. The Alberta government has promised to cut off gas and oil shipments to British Columbia if the B.C. government stands in the project’s way.
READ MORE: Premier Rachel Notley’s threat to cut off oil to others not a new tactic for Alberta
Alberta crude is selling at a discount because pipeline bottlenecks drive up costs and prevent Alberta from fetching better prices in overseas markets such as Asia.
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