A checkpoint is seen at a bridge leading to the Unist'ot'en camp on a remote logging road near Houston, B.C., on Thursday January 17, 2019. The camp is widely known for its role blocking a natural gas company from accessing a work site four kilometres beyond it, but the healing centre at the camp is what's significant to many. Coastal GasLink plans to build a pipeline from northeastern British Columbia to LNG Canada's export terminal in Kitimat on the coast. While the company says it has signed support agreements with all 20 elected First Nations councils along the path, including some Wet'suwet'en bands, the nation's five hereditary clan chiefs say it's illegitimate without their consent too. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
February 05, 2019 - 8:06 AM
PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. - Fourteen people arrested while protesting a pipeline in northwestern British Columbia will have to wait about two months to learn if contempt charges against them will be pursued as a criminal or civil matter.
The 14 were in court in Prince George Monday after being arrested Jan. 7 when heavily armed RCMP officers dismantled a blockade south of Houston, B.C.
Justice Marguerite Church agreed with a request to put the matter over to April 15 to give more time to go over disclosure and allow the B.C. Criminal Justice Branch to consider how to proceed.
Whether to move to the matter to Smithers, closer to where the defendants live, will also be considered at the April hearing.
Arrests began after Coastal GasLink won an interim injunction prohibiting protesters from impeding pre-construction work on the $6.2-billion pipeline which would carry natural gas from northeastern B.C. to Kitimat.
The gas would then be liquefied for shipment overseas as part of the recently approved $40-billion LNG Canada project.
Meanwhile, those opposing a permanent injunction against any further blockades of the pipeline now have until Feb. 20 to make their case after the deadline was extended from Jan. 31.
Coastal GasLink has been given until May 31 to file its response. (Prince George Citizen)
News from © Prince George Citizen, 2019