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Brown, who now sits on the Ontario Court of Appeal, continued: “Such an approach by the OPP was most disappointing because it undercut the practical effect of the injunction order. That kind of passivity by the police leads me to doubt that a future exists in this province for the use of court injunctions in cases of public demonstrations.”

Brown also noted it was troubling that CN Rail would even need to head to the courts to request that the laws be enforced in the first place.

There you have it. A judge predicted this very mess we’re in right now, where fringe activists all across the country continue to lose in the courts but know that civil disobedience will get them everywhere, as the law is only selectively enforced.

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This latest case relates to the CoastalLink project in British Columbia. But activists have pledged to follow similar tactics to halt the Trans Mountain expansion and will no doubt do the same if the Teck Frontier project goes ahead.

There was once a time when the sensitivity of Aboriginal issues could perhaps be used as an excuse. That doesn’t fly anymore. That’s no longer the narrative.

As the Financial Post reported on Tuesday, Aboriginal groups are planning to take the government to court if they do not approve Frontier. “We’ve already had one major industry taken from us – that’s the fur trade,” Ron Quintal, president of the Fort McKay Metis Nation, told Postmedia. “We want to earn our way.”

They are just one of the many groups challenging the stale narrative of First Nations as anti-development. Yet today’s selective law enforcement doesn’t seem to care about them.