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Camp defiant as crackdown promised
Corrigan prepared to go to court as residents express worry about new structures being built at Camp Cloud Kelvin Gawley
kgawley@burnabynow.com
Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan is vowing to crack down on a pipeline protest camp he says has overstepped its bounds. Since November 2017, Camp Cloud has grown from a single trailer to an elaborate encampment of tents and wood structures providing homes, a kitchen, a shower and a safe space for opponents of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project. And the encampment continues to grow, as protesters erect a two-storey carver’s cabin on the side of Shellmont Street near the entrance to Kinder Morgan’s tank farm on Burnaby Mountain. Corrigan said the camp has refused to comply with informal requests from the city to snuff out a ceremonial fire and cease construction of permanent structures. “There’s been virtually no effort to comply,” he said. “This has gone far beyond simply peaceful protest to a point where people in the community, justifiably, have had enough.” In May, residents of the surrounding Forest Grove neighbourhood presented a petition at a council meeting asking the city to remove the camp.The 175 signatories complained about Camp Cloud’s effect on traffic and potential safety hazards. In recent weeks, several locals have written to the NOW complaining about the camp, including Carolyn Carpenter and Duke Shoebotham.The couple said they fear the camp will remain “long after the current political problems are solved.” “This encampment certainly has the appearance of a homeless camp,” the couple wrote. “We want action taken to make our community safe and beautiful once again.” (Read the full letter on page 7.) Corrigan is seeking legal advice on how to deal with the situation. The court injunction meant to prevent protesters from interfering
STANDING HIS GROUND: Johnny Lee stands in front of a large, two-storey wood structure he helped build at Camp Cloud. Area residents are concerned that the camp has gone from a tent city to these types of permanent buildings. Read residents’ comments on page 7. PHOTO KELVIN GAWLEY
with work on the pipeline allows for Camp Cloud and the nearby Watch House to remain. Corrigan said it’s not clear what powers the city has to enforce its bylaws, but he is willing to go to court. “I don’t think we’re prepared to tolerate the present situation there any longer,” he said. But campers are digging in and building up, despite the new rhetoric from city hall. Johnny Lee, a Nehiyaw Cree man from Edmonton, said he is leading the construction of the carver’s cabin, which will allow a First Nations artist to create a totem pole. The building will include a loft and a deck on its roof, which will act as a stage for concerts and may include a screen for movie nights
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and karaoke, Lee said. says so,” Lee said. He said discussions with repLee said most neighbourhood resentatives of the City of Burnaresidents he has spoken to have by who have visited the camp have been supportive, while others have been cordial, but he hurled verbal abuse. has flatly refused to “I’m not particThere’s been comply with their reularly happy with quests. them being here,” virtually no “They give us Lee. “How effort to comply. said trouble about a many centuries of carver’s cabin becolonization and cause we don’t have raping of the land a permit?” he asked. and the oppres“We’ve got to pay the system for sion of the Indigenous people (has us to live our lives and build our there been)? To those people, I say, own shelters and whatnot? No, I ‘tough luck’” don’t think so.” Corrigan said the attitude at He also said the fire that burns Camp Cloud stands in stark concontinuously in the camp won’t be trast to the Watch House a few snuffed out, despite a fire departhundred metres away.The cedar ment request. longhouse was built in the nearby “That sacred fire isn’t going out woods in March under the leaderfor nobody unless our matriarch ship of Will George.
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George said he complied when the city asked him to extinguish his own fire, and he is under strict orders from his Tslei-Waututh elders to hold his protest in a “peaceful way.” George said he would not comment on the different approaches at the two camps. “In no way will I show divide,” he said. The Burnaby RCMP’s operations officer, Supt. Chuck McDonald, said there have been few calls to the Watch House, while there have been more incidents at Camp Cloud, including mischief and an assault. “I don’t know if I want to compare the two (camps),” he said. “I prefer that people draw their own conclusions about the difference between the two.“
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