Hundreds of people have been protesting on and off at Burnaby Mountain over the last two months, from aboriginal leaders to Burnaby residents and anti-pipeline activists. The Vancouver Sun takes a look at just a few of the demonstrators.
Lynne Quarmby
Quarmby, a science professor at Simon Fraser University and chairwoman of SFU’s molecular biology and biochemistry department, was arrested on Friday. She is named as a defendant in a Kinder Morgan lawsuit and has been the public face leading the opposition to the pipeline in Burnaby. Quarmby has been quoted as saying that the National Energy Board process “is a sham.” She argues the process does not allow any consideration of climate change at a time that climate change is the biggest problem facing society. A mother and an environmentalist, Quarmby’s concerns lie with the environment and protecting it for future generations. She is fed up with the federal government’s inaction on climate change. As she was arrested she said: “The fact that people are not allowed to talk about climate change in the pipeline hearings is evidence that the process is broken and corrupt.”
Stephen Collis
Along with Quarmby, Collis has also been a spokesman for the protesters at the camp and is also being sued by Kinder Morgan. Collis is an English professor at SFU and is not someone who usually aligns himself with a cause. But he told The Sun he went up Burnaby Mountain to take a look for himself at the work Trans Mountain was doing and decided to get involved. He began protesting and speaking at the rallies. Collis is concerned about being named in Kinder Morgan’s lawsuit but he feels it’s an attack on free speech and civil disobedience.
Brigette DePape
DePape is a Canadian activist from Winnipeg, who came to national attention on June 3, 2011. While a participant in the Canadian Senate Page program, she stood in protest during the Throne Speech in the Senate, silently holding up a sign that said “Stop Harper!” She was fired for breaching the non-partisan nature of the page position. In 2010, she protested at the G20 summit in Toronto. She has also spoken out about the Alberta oilsands and TransCanada Corp.’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline. DePape attended College Jeanne-Sauve in Winnipeg and won an award for her work with Students without Borders: Afrique 2007 and fundraising efforts for Senegal. She was arrested Thursday on Burnaby Mountain.
Shelagh Bell-Irving
Bell-Irving is a 51-year-old activist from Vancouver Island. She is an active protester in Shawnigan Lake, where residents have been fighting against the dumping of toxic dirt from contaminated sites in Esquimalt and Prince Rupert just four kilometres from the Shawnigan aquifer, which serves 7,000 residents. On her Twitter page she describes herself as “an eco warrior for the rainbow tribe,” who is here to protect Mother Earth and her watershed Shawnigan Lake from “corporate eco terrorists.”
Adam Gold
Gold was arrested Thursday and detained overnight. He was named as a defendant in the injunction sought by Kinder Morgan, along with Mia Nissen, Simon Fraser University professors Collis and Quarmby, and Alan Dutton, who leads the Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion. Gold was one of several protesters who chained themselves to a gate leading into the Chevron Refinery in North Burnaby in May to protest fracking and resource extraction in Canada.
Jakub Markiewicz
The 18-year-old became the face of the arrests Thursday when he chained himself 10 metres up a tree. During the camp, he also chained himself to one of Kinder Morgan’s work vehicles. According to a blog by Erin Flegg, a fellow protester, Markiewicz is an artist, filmmaker and the youngest member of the group on Burnaby Mountain known as the Caretakers, a group of people camped out since Kinder Morgan started work to keep watch over the mountain. Flegg describes him as an avid hiker who was born and raised in Burnaby near the east side of the mountain.
Clarissa Antone
An elder of the Squamish First Nation, Antone’s sister was arrested Thursday. Antone was often heard singing at the camp and drumming. She and her sister kept watch over an indigenous sacred fire at the camp. She studied at Capilano University and lives in North Vancouver. Antone describes herself as a “Guardian of the Earth” and feels compelled to save the indigenous land from being destroyed by corporate greed.
