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A turn of events for those involved in the Kinder Morgan protests. In a statement released from the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) a new zoning application, which expands the area protesters are prohibited from entering on Burnaby Mountain, suggests that many of the 90 arrests made could be found illegitimate.
Photo Credit: Beyond Boarding Facebook Page
Over the past week, RCMP has made a significant number of arrests, and the civil contempt charges laid against those arrested, are under scrutiny for being out of bounds.
The new application in question allows the RCMP to arrest protesters for entering an “exclusion zone” that extends beyond the boundaries of the court's original injunction. The court was asked to amend the injunction to include a larger exclusion zone.
BCCLA found that during this amendment process, the boundaries of the injunction area were unclear to both protesters and the RCMP, making it extremely difficult to know whether or not one is in compliance with the order.
“The RCMP appear to have arrested dozens of people for breaching an injunction when they may have done no such thing; carting people away for crossing a line they didn’t cross,” said Josh Paterson, Executive Director. “The thing with being charged with breaching a court order is that you need to have actually breached what the court ordered. It’s totally unclear whether that is the case, given the acknowledgment that RCMP have arrested people for crossing a police tape line that was metres from the actual injunction line. The enforcement of this injunction has been a mess from the get-go, with nobody really understanding where they are allowed to stand and demonstrate, and where they have to avoid.”
Photo Credit: Beyond Boarding Facebook Page
In light of the lack of clarity and the possibility that many arrests, and subsequent charges, may have been illegitimate, the BCCLA questioned whether an expansion of the injunction area could be justified.
“It’s bad enough that we may have dozens of unlawful arrests based on the existing, confusing injunction. Any legal restrictions on constitutional rights of freedom of speech and assembly must be absolutely clear and must be as minimal as possible. Now the court is being asked to expand the zone that protestors are forbidden to enter, in the form of a request to “clarify” the order. Clearing up the confusion should not require an expansion of the zone in which people are banned from expressing themselves. We can see no compelling legal justification to further restrict people’s right to demonstrate on Burnaby Mountain,” added Paterson.
Photo Credit: Beyond Boarding Facebook Page
On the other hand, the BCCLA acknowledged that there may be additional reasons as to why people have been accused of breaching the injunction other than crossing the police tap line. However, it is unclear whether such reasons would apply to individuals who simply walked across the police tape line.
Where the underlying issue lies, according to the BCCLA, is with the apparent excessive use of force against some protesters.
“We have been extremely troubled to see video and photos of people being choked, thrown to the ground, and pinned to the ground, and we are looking into whether complaints should be filed against the RCMP and other participating police forces,” said Paterson.
Photo Credit: Beyond Boarding Facebook Page
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