More than a dozen arrests were made Saturday afternoon as protesters continued their efforts to try to stop controversial drilling work on Burnaby Mountain.
Another 16 protesters who crossed an injunction-zone boundary were led off by officers as others chanted “No pipelines on stolen native land.”
“Most have been arrested under civil contempt charges for violation of the court order. The majority were arrested peacefully,” said Burnaby RCMP Staff-Sgt. John Buis.
Despite the mostly peaceful protest, some of the officers tasked with preserving a B.C. Supreme Court injunction keeping protesters out of the drilling site were seen carrying Tasers.
“That is fairly normal for us to do and not just for this situation,” Buis said. “We’ll make sure that all our general duty police officers are equipped appropriately.”
But not all arrests were peaceful. On Saturday, a woman claiming to be the mother of a protester challenged the RCMP with a photo showing what appears to be a police choke-hold on her son.
When asked about it, Buis said he was not aware of the incident.
“If there are an issues, there is a mechanism in place to do that. I am not at liberty to discuss this any further,” he told reporters.
The project has sparked strong opposition from anti-pipeline opponents. As of Saturday evening, 53 people had been arrested in total, Buis confirmed.
Kinder Morgan confirmed drilling started around 4:45 p.m. Friday on one of two test holes it plans to collect core samples from in its ongoing bid to twin the existing Trans Mountain pipeline.
“The federal government has let us down,” said environmentalist Kevin Washbrook. “And the processes that they’ve created, like the NEB, have failed us, so we have Kinder Morgan in a public park, going against the will of the people.”
RCMP shut down traffic on Centennial Way on Burnaby Mountain while protests continued.
The work is expected to last up to 12 days.
