The Manager of the Tsleil-Waututh Sacred Trust Initiative is not ruling out a court injunction in a bid to stop construction while their Trans Mountain appeal is being heard.

Rueben George was speaking on NL Newsday, and he is confident the second federal approval of the pipeline will be quashed by the Federal Court of Appeal.

He says an injunction to stop construction during the appeal process would be in the best interest of taxpayers.

“How much money they are sinking into this project, something that has so much instability that will not happen,” he said. “Right now we’re taking it one legal case at a time and right now we’re focused on the Federal Court of Appeal but we’re looking at all of our options and that’s why right now we’re sitting down with our lawyers.”

The court yesterday ruled that it will hear six challenges related to Indigenous consultation over the pipeline. George was asked if the second round of consultations with the government were meaningful.

“Look at the facts that we have with world renowned scientists and economists that we work with, who created the documents that we have had,” George said. “Those are the facts, that it’s not good for the Tsleil-Waututh, it’s not good for BC, it’s not good for Canada. It’s not good for Kamloops. Over and over and over again we have proven this and they have no listened.”

He calls the court ruling a ‘big win’.

“We did more work than we did last time. There are going to be challenges but we’re pretty comfortable with the Canadian constitution protecting our Indigenous rights.”

The court decision calls for narrowly focused, expedited court proceedings that will only examine the calibre of the federal government’s consultation with Indigenous communities between August 2018 and June 2019.