A Vancouver woman is hosting a picnic close to Kinder Morgan's oil storage facility this weekend. The idea is to take photos by the tank farm, which is the exact thing that got SFU professor Tim Takaro in trouble with the RCMP last month.
Vancouver resident Mary Sherlock came up with the idea for Saturday's picnic because she was outraged after Kinder Morgan called the RCMP because Takaro was taking pictures close to the tank farm.
"I just dreamt it up in the middle of the night because I was so incensed with what happened," she told the NOW. "It's bullying basically, it's corporate bullying to accost this guy."
The event is on Saturday, April 18 at 1 p.m. at the corner of Shellmont Street and Underhill Avenue, in Burnaby's Forest Grove area. (The picnic will be nearby; just look for signs.) Word of Sherlock's picnic idea has spread online, and local residents are planning to attend.
This isn't the first event of its kind at the tank farm. On March 20, a group of people converged at the entrance to take photos of each other and themselves, in protest of the company's practice of reporting photographers to police. Before the incident with Takaro, Kinder Morgan also called police on New Westminster resident Lesslie Askin for taking pictures close to the facility. Both Takaro and Askin are participants in the NEB hearing for Kinder Morgan's pipeline expansion.
For more information on Saturday's picnic, search for Burnaby Conservation Area Picnic on Facebook.
