Special prosecutors approved criminal charges against federal Green Party leader and MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands Elizabeth May on Monday, May 14.
May is one of two federal MPs facing criminal charges after they were arrested during a Kinder Morgan pipeline protest in Burnaby on March 23.
In a statement following her arrest, May said she was keeping her word to First Nations opposed to the project.
Statement from @ElizabethMay after her arrest in Burnaby today at a protest against the expansion of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline. pic.twitter.com/A4L0mTrFA9
— Zi-Ann Lum (@ziannlum) March 23, 2018
NDP MP Kennedy Stewart, who represents Burnaby South, was also arrested, and entered a guilty plea on Monday.
May is expected to enter a plea on May 28.
MPs violated court injunction barring protesters from work site
May and Stewart were arrested for violating an order from the BC Supreme Court that created a five metre no-protest buffer zone around a Kinder Morgan work site on Burnaby Mountain.
Both MPs were initially charged with civil contempt of court, which the BC Civil Liberties Association says is “where a person or corporation breaches a court order, and the nature of the conduct interferes with the interests of another private party.”
The charges were upgraded to criminal contempt of court on April 9. Criminal contempt of court is where a court order is breached, but the nature of the conduct is seen to have interfered with the public’s perception of the authority of the law.
