VANCOUVER — Two months before the municipal election, a Vancouver city council candidate was sentenced to seven days in jail on Wednesday, for an issue that has seen more than 200 people arrested for breaking a court injunction to oppose a pipeline.

Jean Swanson — along with Susan Lambert, Adrian Long and four others — was arrested at the gates of the Burnaby Mountain tank farm, a Kinder Morgan site, for civil disobedience on July 30.

Standing before supporters at the B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday morning, 75-year-old Swanson thanked the people imprisoned before her.

“The pipeline we are protesting is dangerous,” she said to the crowd. “Laws can be bad. Laws permitted slavery. Laws permitted the theft of Indigenous land. The laws that led the Trudeau government to buy this pipeline are bad laws.”

The federal government has promised to buy the existing Trans Mountain pipeline, at the estimated cost of $4.5 billion, money which Swanson said could be used for other things, such as building homes or providing clean water.

Swanson, backed by left-of-centre party COPE, said in an interview on Wednesday morning that she plans to continue opposing the pipeline when released.

“I dressed for jail. I have big socks for shackles, I have a warm jacket for the cold basement,” she explained. “I have a lightweight blouse for a hot four-hour car ride out to the jail.”

Vancouver’s independent mayoral candidate Kennedy Stewart, who was also arrested but did not serve time, stood to support Swanson and others before the courthouse on Wednesday. In a statement, Stewart said the people deserve better and “it’s disgraceful that Justin Trudeau continues to send grandmothers and Order of Canada members to jail.”

On Tuesday, Ruth Campbell, retired civil lawyer for the B.C. Attorney General’s Office, was sentenced to seven days in jail. Faith leaders Rev. Emilie Smith and former Mennonite pastor Steve Heinrichs are currently serving their jail sentences, according to a press release, while Laurie Embree, grandmother and 108 Mile Ranch resident, was released for good behaviour last Saturday.

Meanwhile, the same day, four others were arrested while blocking the gates of Kinder Morgan’s marine tanker terminal on Burrard Inlet. A 17-year-old Kwakwaka’wakw protester, arrested in March, is also in court this afternoon, the release noted.

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Former head of the BC Teachers Federation, Susan Lambert, among seven others arrested with Swanson, told the crowd she was “daunted” by the prospect of facing jail time.

But while Lambert said she respects the rule of law, there is a standoff between the state and the people on the issue of the environment.

“People are the only thing that will stop unjust laws,” Lambert said in an interview, noting she’s been speaking out against the pipeline expansion for more than 10 years. “It can’t fall on the shoulders of a few. It’s too important.”

Protect the Inlet, the cities of Vancouver and Burnaby, and some First Nations have raised environmental concerns about the expansion project, which would twin the existing 1,100-kilometre pipeline, triple its flow of diluted bitumen and increase tanker traffic in the Burrard Inlet sevenfold.

And for criminal contempt-of-court proceedings involving Trans Mountain protesters, the B.C. Prosecution Service notes the sentencing for injunction breaches and mass demonstrations generally varies from fines to imprisonment, or both.

It notes that in the case of anti-logging protests at Clayoquot Sound in the early 1990s, the initial penalties were $500 fines and suspended jail sentences. But they grew to $1,000 fines for continually breaching court orders, and were later lifted for inability to pay. Ultimately, jail sentences of 30 and 45 days were handed out.

For the Trans Mountain protesters, the Crown’s position is that defendants arrested before April 16 who pleaded guilty no later than May 28 should be fined $500 or ordered to perform community service if they are unable to pay.

The Crown says protesters arrested after Aug. 2 who plead guilty within a month of making their first court appearance should be given 14-day jail terms. Protesters who plead guilty on the first day of the trial should face 21-day jail time and, if the trial continues and they are found guilty, the Crown says they should be sentenced to 28 days.

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COPE released Swanson’s statement in a Facebook post on Wednesday afternoon which read, “Over 900 people joined together to protect Clayoquot Sound. Arrests didn’t deter them, and Clayoquot Sound still hasn’t been clear-cut because of them.”

Swanson told StarMetro that she would like to see the province step in.

“The province is supposed to be against the pipeline and they’re in charge of the court,” she explained. “I would like to see [them] take action to stop having such harsh penalties for people who are engaged in civil disobedience.”

With files from Ainslie Cruickshank

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