Up a tree and then to jail: Physician activist charged after pipeline protest

Dr. Tim Takaro has been given a month in jail for staying in a tree for days in an attempt to block construction of the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion in British Columbia. He slept in a tent suspended 100 feet off the ground. Dr. Takaro, 65, pleaded guilty to the charge of criminal contempt of court on June 13 and was sentenced by B.C. Supreme Court two days later. Doctors for Planetary Health staged a protest outside of the courthouse on the day of his sentencing. The sentencing comes four years after Justice Kenneth Affleck of the B.C. Supreme Court granted an injunction in favour of Trans Mountain Pipeline to prevent protesters from impeding the expansion project. Dr. Takaro took part in a number of protests, many of which involved sitting up in trees slated to be cut down. In a September 2021 protest, he avoided arrest by climbing down the tree after the RCMP went through a five-step process outlined in the 2018 injunction. Between Nov. 23 and 26, 2021, Dr. Takaro set up a tent in a tree on a Trans Mountain Pipeline work site. His sky-high camping spot was draped with a sign reading: “Doctors say: StopTMX.ca.” He was secured to the tree with a waist harness and anchor. The work continued around Dr. Takaro’s tree. On Nov. 26, the RCMP brought an aerial extraction team. After the RCMP repeated five-step process, and Dr. Takaro remained in the tree, the RCMP officers placed Dr. Takaro under arrest. He posted another video to his Facebook page about his arrest, saying it was déja vu and that “there was more to come.” The RCMP officers climbed the tree and “after some difficulties,” the officers lowered Dr. Takaro to the ground, where he was arrested, the B.C. Supreme Court decision states. During the hearing, Dr. Takaro’s legal team asked for non-custodial sentence, partly on account of his high blood pressure, high cholesterol and history of cardiac stent implantation. Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick accepted the Crown’s submission that a 30-day jail sentence was warranted. On Facebook, Dr. Takaro posted his address at prison and invited letters. “There is no visitation and I’m expecting it to be a difficult time,” he wrote on June 1, prior to the June 13 hearing. Dr. Takaro is a physician-scientist who trained in occupational and environmental medicine. He’s professor emeritus in the department of health sciences at Simon Fraser University. He retired from clinical practice at the Vancouver General Hospital in 2020. Read: CAPE launches funding drive to help ban fossil fuel ads

Up a tree and then to jail: Physician activist charged after pipeline protest

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