Burnaby RCMP says it has arrested a pipeline protester who had suspended himself from a tree at Kinder Morgan’s Burnaby facility.
Terry Christenson, a former Juno nominee and grandfather of two from Ontario had set up camp mid-air to stop Kinder Morgan from cutting trees at its Westridge Marine terminal.
WATCH: Protesters were arrested Monday after disrupting work sites by tying themselves to gates.
Mounties say they had call in the Lower Mainland Integrated Emergency Response Team in order to extract Christenson.
“This male put himself and responding police officers at risk of serious injury,” said a Burnaby RCMP media release.
“I’m doing this for the grandchildren of the world, including mine and their children,” said the 70-year-old told Global News earlier on Monday. “This is insane, you can’t even quantify how much fresh water this pipeline crosses.”
“This is a challenge to them. Come and get me boys.”
WATCH: Global News coverage of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion
Protesters have been tying themselves to gates and machinery in an effort to disrupt work on the controversial pipeline project.
Burnaby RCMP says it arrested 15 people on Monday, for breaching a permanent court-ordered injunction that prevents protesters from blocking access to Trans Mountain work sites. With the 28 arrested Saturday along with arrests on Friday and the previous week, police say they have taken 51 people into custody in total.
Meanwhile, BC NDP MPs have presented a petition with 30,000 signatures opposing the project to the House of Commons.
Vancouver East MP Jenny Kwan says people opposed to the pipeline are asking her “where’s the science?” for cleaning up a spill.
“And is the Prime Minister able to produce the science to clean up the bitumen when there’s a spill,” she said. “This is a primary question; you can’t say that there’ll be a spill response and that we will deal with this when in fact their is no science available right now.”
Global News has reached out to Kinder Morgan for comment.
-With files from Jeremy Lye