A lawyer representing one of 15 people named by Trans Mountain in its application for an injunction against pipeline protests in Burnaby, B.C., says citizens have a constitutional right to freedom of expression.

Casey Leggett told a B.C. Supreme Court judge protesters may have caused inconvenience by demonstrating against construction at two marine terminals, but they have not always mounted blockades as Trans Mountain maintains.

READ: Trans Mountain seeks permanent injunction against protesters in court

Leggett read from affidavits presented in court by a Trans Mountain lawyer, saying the company’s security staff noted protesters sometimes stood peacefully and left after police arrived.

However, Justice Kenneth Affleck countered that Leggett was cherry-picking incidents that did not involve blockades aimed at disrupting work at the Burnaby Terminal and the Westbridge Marine Terminal.

Leggett replied that Trans Mountain has done the same and also focuses on blockades rather than inconvenience, which he says does not justify the granting of an injunction.

Affleck has already granted the company an interim injunction that prevents protesters from coming with 50 metres of the two sites.

The Canadian Press