A 71-year-old Ontario grandfather was arrested after attempting to scale a construction crane with a sign that read “No Tankers” in his third mid-air protest of the Trans Mountain pipeline project since last year.
According to the Toronto Star, Terry Christenson began to climb the piece of equipment at the Westridge Marine Terminal, a facility where oil would be loaded onto tankers in the pipeline expansion.
Christenson told The Star he planned to stay on the barge for as long as possible, but was deterred when Burnaby RCMP officers arrived on the scene to detain him.
“When the federal government re-approved the Trans Mountain pipeline, they knew the protesters would come,” he said in a news release. “Well, here we are, and we’re sending our message loud and clear: This pipeline is a disaster in waiting.”
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Burnaby RCMP arrested Christenson around 3:50 a.m. Wednesday, said a statement provided by Cpl. Daniela Panesar.
“He was in breach of a court-ordered injunction that stated demonstrators could not come within five metres of a Trans Mountain Site,” Panesar told The Star.
Dubbed the “protesting grandpa,” Christenson was arrested in March 2018 and again in April of this year for scaling a 100-foot tree that overlooked the vast harbour, barges and Burrard Inlet. He stayed up in the tree for 34 hours and 16 hours, respectively.
(Vancouver Star/Toronto Star)
