Burnaby RCMP says it has arrested a 71-year-old man who had perched himself in a tree on the property of Bunraby’s Westridge Marine Terminal to fight the proposed Trans Mountain expansion project.
Terry Christenson spent about 34 hours in the tree before he was removed by members of the RCMP Emergency Response Team (ERT) on Tuesday.
Mounties say the ERT was required because removing Christenson required high-angle rope skills.
Christenson remains in custody and is due in court Wednesday morning to face a charge of criminal contempt for violating a court injunction that requires protesters to stay five metres from Trans Mountain property.
WATCH: Anti-pipeline protesters raise the stakes
In a statement posted to Twitter Tuesday, Christenson said he acted because of the impending crisis of climate change.
“I’m more afraid of climate change than I am of jail, and I’m willing to risk arrest to send a message to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: Canada shouldn’t be building more dirty pipelines,” he said.
“Almost a third of the people protesting the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion are old people like me, I think because we remember what weather patterns used to be like and how much everything has shifted because of climate change.”
It’s not the first time Christenson has been arrested protesting.
He was taken into custody in March 2018 after climbing into a tree for about 16 hours.
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