Two B.C. women sentenced to three weeks in jail for protesting pipeline

Emily Kelsall and Lucy Everett dressed in inflatable dinosaur costumes for a protest at a TMX work site in Burnaby

Two B.C. women have been sentenced to jail time for their involvement in a protest of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion in Burnaby.

Emily Kelsall and Lucy Everett, both 24, dressed in inflatable dinosaur costumes last spring, scaled a wall, entered a TMX work site, and played badminton, in a bid to draw attention to the climate emergency, according to the court.

They were charged with criminal contempt for violating a court injunction against blockades of the work site, according to the environmental activist group Protect the Planet.

Both pleaded guilty.

On Friday, the B.C. Supreme Court imposed sentences of 21 days in jail and $1,240 restitution for Everett and 28 days jail and $1,240 restitution for Kelsall, according to Dan McLaughlin of the B.C. Prosecution Service.

The women were taken into custody and will be transported to the Alouette Correctional Centre for Women, according to Protect the Planet.

The women are part of a “T. Rex Against TMX” campaign to stop construction of a pipeline they say ignores Indigenous rights and climate science. The dinosaur costumes symbolize mass extinction.

Everett, who also goes by the name Maya Laframboise and is a member of the Métis Nation, said in a statement Friday that she has always been taught by her elders to act with the next seven generations in mind. Everett said her people are governed by “wahkohtowin, which means a kinship to all relations.”

“By allowing this pipeline to go through despite opposition from First Nations and despite the threats it poses to destroy our non-human relations and the lands and waters across B.C., we are not living by the value of wahkohtowin nor thinking seven generations ahead,” said Everett.

Kelsall said she is proud to join the ranks of “activists, land defenders and water protectors” who have served time in jail for the cause.

The judge said “that if we disobey the law, chaos will occur, but if we do not stand up when the law is wrong, even greater chaos will occur as emissions continue to increase,” said Kelsall.

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