Burnaby's legal battle against Kinder Morgan rejected by federal court

In a see-saw contest between the City of Burnaby and a $100-billion-Texas-based pipeline corporation, the municipality learned Friday its legal attack against Kinder Morgan will likely be heard in provincial court, not a federal one.

That’s because a federal appeal judge rejected the city’s application to hear its argument.

“It’s a procedural hurdle, but sooner or later a court has to deal with this issue,” said the City of Burnaby’s lawyer, Gregory McDade, Q.C. on Friday.

Whose contempt? Burnaby Mountain, Kinder Morgan and the law

Burnaby Mountain, probably best known as the home of Simon Fraser University, is the site of a proposed expansion of Trans Mountain, Kinder Morgan's Edmonton to Vancouver tar sands pipeline. The mountain is also unceded Indigenous territory, part of the traditional land of the Musqueum, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. But for the last few months, Burnaby Mountain played host to a concerted struggle for climate justice and Indigenous sovereignty, a battle over one pipeline that became a proxy fight over the Harper government's fixation with extractive industry as a whole.

Cities 'Thrown to Wolves' by Province: Burnaby Mayor

On Derek Corrigan's desk sits a wooden slingshot, a gift from a Burnaby resident to the mayor at the centre of an increasingly heated battle with Kinder Morgan.

''It's a David and Goliath analogy,'' he says, turning the weapon over in his hand. ''I guess I'm David.''

Against Corrigan's wishes -- and despite several ongoing city legal challenges -- the Texas pipeline giant conducted exploratory drilling deep into Burnaby Mountain Conservation Area last week, sparking more than 100 arrests this week under a court injunction protecting company workers.

A 74-year-old Kinder Morgan critic slams Harper government, gets arrested on Burnaby Mountain

Della Glendenning strongly condemned the federal government's environmental policy before crossing the line to get arrested on Burnaby Mountain, where an ongoing protest against Kinder Morgan's pipeline expansion is taking place. The 74-year-old, according to reports, has no record of civil disobedience, and said her only 'black mark' was a library fine.

Protesting on Burnaby Mountain was my obligation as a scientist, parent and Canadian citizen

Harper’s conservative government is working hard to turn Canada into a petrostate. Their tactics include blatant inaction on climate change, dismantling environmental legislation, stripping government scientists from their ability to communicate research findings to the tax-paying public, and spying on citizens who, like me, dissent.

On Burnaby Mountain, Confronting the Gorilla

Kinder Morgan has been on my mind a lot lately and, when I woke up at four o'clock Friday morning, it was there, waiting: an 800-pound gorilla with greasy hair that lumbered across the border from Texas and is squatting now on Burnaby Mountain -- close enough to crowd me out of bed. Gorillas are lousy sleeping companions at the best of times, and this one doesn't sleep. Who has time when one's stated goal is to ''continually leverage our large footprint of assets and actively pursue expansions, joint ventures and acquisitions so that we can further increase... distributions and... dividends.''

Kinder Morgan Begins Survey Work On Burnaby Mountain As Protests Continue

BURNABY, B.C. - First Nations vowed to stand in unity with protesters as police kept up arrests Friday in a Metro Vancouver conservation area where crews resumed survey work for the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

Shortly after activists announced they would do whatever it takes to stymie the project, a group began marching up Burnaby Mountain in the pouring rain.

More arrests quickly followed.

Massive crowd on Burnaby Mountain, as Kinder Morgan injunction takes effect

What started as a trickle of oil-pipeline protesters two months ago has spilled into a massive anti-Kinder-Morgan movement on Burnaby Mountain, if Monday night's crowd is any indication.

More than 800 people showed up at 4pm – the exact time a B.C.-Supreme-Court-ordered-Kinder-Morgan injunction took effect.

It is now illegal for protesters to interfere with the company’s controversial pipeline survey work for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.  The RCMP were everywhere, but neither they nor the court order seemed to stop the crowds from expressing their anger at the project.  Youth, seniors, native, non-native all showed up in force.

More notably, First Nations leaders led the fiery speeches.

Kinder Morgan lawyer strikes back at Burnaby pipeline protesters

Describing Burnaby Mountain protesters as having an “abundance of exuberance and an absence of judgment”, Kinder Morgan’s lawyer led a legal assault against environmentalists in a B.C. Supreme Court Wednesday to try and get its $5.4-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion back on track.

Corporate lawyer William Kaplan, Q.C., told the judge the issue was neither “climate change” nor enviro-protesters’ right to freedom of expression.  The real legal trouble, he argued, was the protesters systematic and organized “conspiracy” to thwart and delay its Edmonton-to-Burnaby oil sands pipeline project.

Burnaby Mountain: Latest wall of opposition against tar sands

An injunction and a $5.6-million civil suit in damages is what corporate energy giant Kinder Morgan is seeking against blockaders at a court hearing this week.

Since August of this year, a determined group of Burnaby residents have been stopping Kinder Morgan work crews at a designated conservation area within Burnaby Mountain. SFU professor and defendant Stephen Collis explains, "Many of us are increasingly concerned about climate change, issues relating to Aboriginal title, and the erosion of our democratic rights."

Kinder Morgan crews blocked by citizens on Burnaby Mountain

Kinder Morgan crews were met by a group of citizens that blocked the company from conducting its oil pipeline survey work on Burnaby Mountain Wednesday morning.  One teenager even pinned himself under a company jeep.

The drama began around 10am at a staging area where dozens of citizens have been gathered for days.  Suddenly, the word went out: Kinder Morgan crews were advancing into the woods.

Burnaby loses its legal fight against Kinder Morgan for now

In a sea-saw legal conflict over the future of a multi-billion-dollar oil sands pipeline, the National Energy Board said it has ruled against the City of Burnaby in its attempts to block Kinder Morgan from doing its test pipeline drilling on Burnaby Mountain.

City staff have been ordered to no longer get in the way of the Texas-giant's efforts to access Burnaby Mountain's Conservation forest area.

Supreme Court rejects Burnaby's injunction to stop Kinder Morgan

Under a cloudy, grey sky  on top of Burnaby Mountain, a crowd of around 25  rolled out a banner that read “Stop Kinder Morgan!” in bold red letters and prepared to hear the news from the B.C. Supreme Court.

They had gathered from all around Metro Vancouver to hear Justice Brenda Brown's decision on whether to grant the City of Burnaby an injunction to stop Kinder Morgan’s controversial Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.