Two young Burnaby girls are in the media spotlight after choosing to cross the injunction lines on Burnaby Mountain Sunday. The NOW spoke with the girls and their parents about what happened and the decision to let their daughters cross.
They were two tiny voices on a tinny megaphone in a packed crowd at the edge of the police zone. It was Day 4 of the protests against Kinder Morgan's survey work on Burnaby Mountain, and hundreds of people flocked to the conservation area, including families and children.
"I'm 11 years old and I'm going to cross the police line, because I hate what's being done over there to the mountain."
The first was Kate, an 11-year-old student from Forest Grove Elementary, a school next to the existing Kinder Morgan pipeline.
"Every time that drill goes down, that's one part of my green future being taken away from me," she said.
Kate's mom, Kim Fink-Jensen, was going to cross with her, and her friend, Naomi, decided to join.
"I'm 11, and Kinder Morgan is wrong. What they are doing is wrong, they can't just go around drilling holes in mountains just 'cause they want oil and money. It's wrong," she said on the megaphone.
And with that, Kim and the girls slipped beneath the yellow police tape. The crowd roared.
As Naomi tells it, what happened next was relatively benign.
"The police were very polite. All they did was escort me and my friend Kate and her mom to a black SUV, (in) which we could not open the doors," she told the NOW. "We sat there for about 20 minutes. The police were very nice. They even offered us snacks."
Since that moment, both girls have been the subject of media stories, and there's been some controversy over letting children attend protests. Both girls insist the decision to cross was theirs, and theirs alone.
"I am very concerned about the environmental issue that will most likely happen if Kinder Morgan goes ahead with its expansion," Naomi said. "I believe that transporting oil by pipeline is quite dangerous, because if the oil spills there will be very severe environmental consequences."
Kate also expressed concerns about the environment.
"I wanted to go across the line to take more of a stand than protesting against ... the Kinder Morgan drilling and against the bigger issue of climate change," Kate told the NOW. "Protesting shouldn't be limited to an age. We are the ones inheriting this world, we should have a right to understand what's going on and protest it if we feel the need."
The decision to let the girls cross was not taken lightly.
Naomi's father, Peter Cech, was the one who took his daughter to the mountain Sunday. Peter is a vocal critic of the local Chevron refinery. He's an active member of BROKE (Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion), and he and his wife Charlene are tireless advocates for better school resources for gifted kids.
On Saturday, Peter crossed the injunction line and was arrested. He returned home and explained to his daughter what had happened.
"(I) talked about what I had done and why I did it, and what civil disobedience is about, and how it helped with the civil rights movement and women's right to vote and other progressive movements," Peter said.
Naomi also wanted to go to the mountain, so the two headed up on Sunday. But when Naomi said she wanted to cross the line with her friend, Peter's first reaction was no.
"I had no sense of what the legal consequences were for an 11-year-old. And the other concern I had is I couldn't go with her, because if I crossed the line again it would become a criminal charge instead of a civil charge," he told the NOW. "But I thought if she's that passionate about it, if as a society these are the things we need to do to move ourselves forward, I felt I couldn't really say no to her."
Peter said he felt his daughter had the right to stand up for her beliefs like anyone else, and Naomi was with an adult he knew, but he still didn't want his daughter arrested.
"What parent would want their daughter to be arrested, especially at that age?" he said. "I think the question parents have to ask themselves is two-fold. One, do they think it's their responsibility as a good parent to take action on climate change? And two, do they think it's the role of a good parent to help their children become good global citizens?"
Naomi's mom Charlene echoed her husband's sentiments.
"Children are bombarded daily by scary yet real information about serious environmental concerns," she said. "Naomi is passionate about biology, science and environmental issues and is deeply concerned about the welfare of our planet. ... This is what I struggle with - are we really keeping our children out of harm's way by avoiding environmental protests and denying them that voice?
We are certainly placing them in harm's way by continuing our reliance on fossil fuels, building more pipelines and not tackling climate change."
Kim said it was a family decision to let Kate cross, and Kate wanted to go. Kim simply accompanied her to make sure she was safe.
"We decided as a family we were not going to quiet her voice. We were going to let her take her stand and cross," she told the NOW. "I really think you can bring your kids up there and have it be a responsible thing. The thing that's traumatizing them is this extractive industry that is going on in a conservation area in the their backyard."
That said, Kim is careful about when she takes her kids, avoiding days where things could be tense, like the first day the injunction kicked in.
While some media outlets reported that the girls were arrested, Burnaby RCMP say they were simply escorted away, and not even apprehended.
However, police don't want children crossing the court-imposed lines.
"They become the responsibility of the police, and we have to then assure their safety, and we have to make sure they are safely returned to a responsible adult," said Staff Sgt. John Buis of the Burnaby RCMP.
"We're not legally allowed to (charge) 11 year olds. We can't do that under the Criminal Code of Canada, but what happens instead is they become the responsibility of the police."
Buis said it's OK for parents to let their kids' voices be heard.
"But do it safely and don't make her the responsibility of the police and family services," he said. "It's quite a large concern."
