Seven anti-pipeline protesters, including city council candidate Jan Swanson, have been sentenced to spend a week behind bars for taking part in illegal demonstrations.
Each of the pipeline opponents pleaded guilty Wednesday in B.C. Supreme Court, where they represented themselves on contempt charges.
Before the hearing was underway, Swanson addressed a crowd of supporters and journalists outside court, defending her decision to fight Kinder Morgan's controversial Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
"It's dangerous because it's contributing to global warming, it's dangerous because it can spill on the land and sea and it's dangerous because it's trampling on Indigenous rights by going through Indigenous territory without consent," she said.
Also among the accused was Susan Lambert, the former president of the B.C. Teachers' Federation.
The mood inside the courtroom was civil, with the judge acknowledging the protesters' contributions to the community and their records as law abiding citizens.
The protesters thanked the judge after their sentences were handed down.
Protest group Protect the Inlet said another protester, Ruth Campbell, a retired lawyer from the B.C. Attorney General's office, was sentenced to seven days in jail on Tuesday.
More than 200 activists have been arrested for anti-pipeline demonstrations since March, including four who were taken into custody outside Kinder Morgan's Westridge Marine Terminal on Tuesday.
With files from CTV Vancouver's Sarah MacDonald
