A retired provincial government lawyer was one of two more anti-pipeline protesters arrested in front of a Trans Mountain pipeline facility Wednesday.

Ruth Campbell told reporters that she was encouraged, not deterred, by a B.C. Supreme Court judge’s decision to sentence two senior citizens to seven days’ jail for breaking the injunction against blocking pipeline construction.

“When I heard about this older woman getting jail time, that’s when I decided to sacrifice myself as well. It makes me angry that ordinary citizens, not criminals, are suffering like this,” Campbell said.

“I think it’s wrong. We’re doing this out of a sense of conscience because we care about the future. We care about the younger generation. I want to be able to say to my great niece, who is four years old, I tried to stop climate change,” she said.

Campbell and another person, Noaa Edwards, sat on mats and deck chairs in the driveway to the Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby on Wednesday morning. That’s the terminus of the existing Trans Mountain Pipeline, which runs from Edmonton, and which is slated to be twinned.

It was in defiance of an injunction sought by Kinder Morgan earlier this year to stop protesters blocking construction and to be at least five meters away from the gate, which B.C. Supreme Court Judge Kenneth Affleck granted.

Within an hour, the energy company had called the RCMP, which arrived with about a 20 officers, portable toilets, and a portable table to process arrestees. The officers handed out copies of the injunction and played a recording through a portable speaker.

Edwards and Campbell stayed on their chairs, and were arrested peacefully.

“It’s not complicated. It feels like the right thing to do,” said Edwards, also adding that the judge’s decision to put protesters in jail inspired more action. “Someone’s grandma gets arrested, it’s time for me to take a chair beside them.”

Protesters expressed concern about a completed pipeline leading to more tanker traffic in Burrard Inlet, threatening wildlife, and higher carbon dioxide emissions that scientists predict will lead to a hotter, more inhospitable planet.

“It’s a question of life or death for low-lying island nations, folks affected by wildfires, floods, typhoons. The climate crisis is a multiplier for every issue in the world,” said protest organizer Jacqueline Lee. 

Wednesday’s arrests bring the total number of people brought into custody to 216. Of those, 86 people have received sentences of fines or community service, including Green Party Leader Elizabeth May. Two protesters, Laurie Embree and Constance Lasheras, were sentenced to a week in prison.

They were demonstrating against the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, which the federal government is purchasing for $4.5 billion in an effort to ensure the project can be brought to completion.