Kinder Morgan protest arrests may be illegal says BCCLA

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association says it's likely the RCMP may have been acting outside the law in its recent arrests of dozens of protesters on Burnaby Mountain.

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The association points to a new court application to expand the exclusion zone granted Kinder Morgan in an earlier civil injunction against the protesters.

Clayoquot sound was a turning point...I feel that's happening here today, we are going to change the tide on climate policy- Environmental activist Valerie Langer

It says those hauled awaymight not actually have been violating the injunction at the time of their arrest because they never actually entered the no-go area.

The thing with being charged with breaching a court order is that you need to have actually breached what the court ordered.

Its totally unclear whether that is the case," saidJosh Paterson, Executive Director of the Civil Liberties Association in a written release.

Patterson says there is confusion over the exact GPS coordinates of the zone and it's causing problemsfor both demonstrators and the RCMP.

Also today, severalveterans of the Clayoquot Sound anti-logging movementjoined the growing list of those arrested.

Today's arrests now put the total of those taken away by police at more than 100.Karen Mahonis one of severalveterans of the mass arrests in 1993 on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. Shewalked across police lines and was taken into custody today onBurnaby Mountain east of Vancouver.

Echos of earlier protests

More than 900 protesters were arrested in 1993 as environmentalists fought to stop logging in the old growth of Clayoquot Sound, making it at the time the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history.

Valerie Langer, another longtime environmental campaigner, was also taken away by police as a crowd of supporters yelled out "thank you" and sang songs of support.

Before her arrest she says she chose to violate the injunction because it is reminiscent of the anti-logging protests in the early nineties which led to changes in forest practices.

"ClayoquotSound was a turning point in conservation policy and for the environmental movement," she told CBC news. "I feel that's happening here today.We are going to change the tide on climate policy."

The oldest person arrested today, 87 year old Jean McLaren received some of the loudest cheers after a long walk up the hill to the protest site.

Mounties treated her gingerly but she too was taken away in a police wagon. Most of those arrested are released within hours, after signing an undertaking promising to appear in court in January.