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When young people hear the call to action T
wo 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 ON MY BEAT conservation Jennifer Moreau 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-yearold student from Forest Grove Elementary, a school next to the current 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.
Children crossing:
From left, a woman holds the megaphone microphone up to Kim FinkJensen, flanked by her 11-yearold daughter Kate and Naomi Cech, also 11. The two young girls crossed into the injunction area on Burnaby Mountain Sunday. Below, Naomi’s father Peter Cech with police. Jennifer Gauthier/ burnaby now
For more photos and a video, scan with Layar and go to www. burnabynow. com
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. Protests Page 8
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