An Anglican priest and her parishioner were handed seven days in jail today and a $2,000 fine, according to the group Protect the Inlet, for a protest in Burnaby earlier this year, but were spared having to pay the enormous legal costs that were being sought by Trans Mountain
Laurel Dykstra and Linda Hutchings were among more than 200 anti-pipeline activists arrested in Burnaby this year, but they were the first found guilty of civil contempt of court in the ongoing Trans Mountain pipeline saga.
On May 25, Dykstra and Hutchings chained themselves to a tree on the property of Trans Mountain’s Burnaby Mountain tank farm with bicycle U-locks around their necks. This summer, the two women were relieved when criminal contempt of court charges were dropped by the Crown, Dykstra told the NOW. Dozens of other protesters have been convicted of that charge in recent months, with sentencing ratcheting up into longer and longer jail terms. But Trans Mountain picked up the case and sought the civil charge, which was handed down by Judge Kenneth Affleck in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver earlier this month.
“It felt pretty personal. We’ve been singled out from amongst a group of other people who have had charges dropped,” Dykstra told the NOW on Nov. 7. “It feels targeted and it feels like an intimidation tactic where the public participation of folks and dissent are being threatened financially.”
Trans Mountain’s lawyer, Matthew Huys, argued in court that Dykstra and Hutchings should be convicted because they knowingly crossed into Trans Mountain’s property and violated the injunction, which bars protesters from coming within five metres of the proerty line.
“Everyone who breaches a court order faces consequences, environmental protest or not,” Huys said.
