Burnaby Mountain
Yes, a lot of people, both native and non-native, are angry at Kinder Morgan
over Burnaby Mountain. I understand this anger.
I also understand how and why a court injunction was used against the
protesters at Burnaby Mountain. What is a court ordered injunction?
When a private company’s work is
being interfered with by people who protest the work, then the company can go
to court and ask a judge to make an order stating that the protesters have to
stop interfering. The judge will almost certainly give the injunction. He or she will almost certainly have been a corporate
lawyer before becoming a judge. So with
injunction in hand and read to the protesters the police can then be called to
come arrest people who won’t get out of the way of the bulldozers. If anybody refuses to stand down they will be
arrested and taken to jail and charged with Contempt of Court.
They will be presented with an
undertaking which is a promise to appear before a judge on a certain date. The arrestees will be allowed to go free if
they sign the undertaking which also demands a promise not to go back to the
arrest site until their court hearing or any other protest site. With undertaking signed, the arrestee is set
free until their trial date. How does this work out in real time? Not good. The arrestee is essentially washed
out of the protest. He or she can’t go
back to the protest, can’t join any other protest, and at trial must apologize to
the presiding judge for disobeying a court order, and or, pay a fine and do
some community work. The alternative to
this disgusting, degrading scenario?
Refuse to sign the undertaking. Stay in jail. When people do this there is a transfer of
power. The powers that be won’t know
what to do with such protesters as they have become political prisoners in a country
that isn’t supposed to have political prisoners.
If one defends oneself in the courtroom when
brought before the judge one can speak one’s own piece to a crowded courtroom full
of supporters and media. The fate of the
Burnaby Mountain would become international news if two or three of the protesting people,
native and non- native, simply refused…refused
to move from the site when ordered, refused to sign the undertaking, refused to
apologize to the judge, refused any kind of punishment designed to wash them
out of the system. Courage is
contagious. The corporations would rant
and rave and threaten to make protesters pay millions of dollars (they are
bluffing, they just want the court to charge protesters with Criminal Contempt
of Court instead of Civil Contempt so they don’t have to pay court costs). And protesters won’t have a criminal record
because Contempt of Court is not coded (not in the Criminal Code as a crime per
se.)
I realize that not everybody
involved with Burnaby Mountain can put their affairs on whole and stay in jail
for weeks, maybe months on end while being held for Contempt of Court. All I can say is that during this time there
will be many court hearings and jailed protesters will have many opportunities to physically,
morally and spiritually stand up for the earth in which we all live and move
and have our beings. Again, courage is contagious.
The mayor of Burnaby has discouraged people from taking this hard road as he is
confident of a win in court. I hope he
is right, but my own years of experience with the courts of BC over
environmental protests tells me the mayor may be expecting too much and if the
protesters want to save Burnaby Mountain they must do it themselves.
