The Editor,
It is hard to believe that courts in Canada can side with a ruling by an unelected and unaccountable body (the National Energy Board) over the objections and bylaws of a duly elected body (Burnaby council) and a community.
It is further quite alarming that the nature of the injunction granted is to allow Kinder Morgan to cut down trees and do survey work in preparation for bringing a pipeline through a city park and conservation area.
I guess we can expect as much in Colony Farm in Coquitlam in the near future, too.
This disappointment is only compounded now that the RCMP, which had the option of discretion in this non-criminal matter, as it always does, has decided to enforce the injunction and arrest otherwise civil protestors.
This is a system that seems broken. Amongst other things, perhaps it is time to consider a local police force that is more representative of elected bodies and local communities, and free of influences from headquarters in Ottawa, which I suspect may have had some influence in the enforcement decision.
By comparison, it is hard to imagine the West Vancouver Police Department going against the wishes of that city's mayor, council and community, and instead siding with a foreign corporation.
Bruce Cutayne,
Port Coquitlam
