A trial at Kamloops court involving members of the Tiny House Warriors has been pushed back until the new year.

A five-day trial was supposed to start today, but defense lawyer Joe Killoran tells NL News a new date will be decided on Dec. 7, and says the trial will happen in early 2021 instead.

“One of the accused, the lawyer for the accused, they had to withdraw. There was an issue between him and the accused, which I don’t know about. But in any case, he had to withdraw, so she needed time to get new council.”

Killoran says the Tiny House Warriors are trying to protect their land and water by opposing the Trans Mountain pipeline.

He’s representing one of three members charged with mischief and assault, after interfering with a meeting about the pipeline at Thompson Rivers University in December of 2018.

During that, red paint was dumped on part of the school property and the TRU Student Activity Centre was vandalized with painted red handprints. A security guard was allegedly assaulted as well by the demonstrators.

“I’m not sure how they knew the meeting was going on. I know there were attempts to keep the meeting secret,” Killoran says about his clients entering the meeting between Trans Mountain staff, former Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci and Indigenous leaders.

“Which begs the question, how much consultation are you doing with Indigenous communities when you have private, closed-door secret meetings once you’ve already decided to lay a pipeline. That’s questionable to me. But no, I don’t know how they discovered about the meeting.”

Killoran says about six members of the Tiny House Warriors were met by nearly two dozen security staff.