An SFU professor is wondering why police are investigating him for taking pictures near the Burnaby Mountain tank farm.
Tim Takaro, a New Westminster resident and health sciences professor at SFU, was having lunch with his family yesterday, when his daughter’s cell phone rang. The man on the other end of the line was looking for Takaro.
“He identifies himself as the Burnaby RCMP, and he asked me if I was involved in any incidents,” Takaro said. “I didn’t know anything he was talking about.”
The officer told Takaro there would be no charges, but Takaro had no idea he was under investigation in the first place.
“He said, there’s no criminal charges, kind of out of the blue,” Takaro said.
On March 6, Takaro was visiting Global TV to give an interview on the Port Metro Vancouver fire. He then drove up the hill to Kinder Morgan’s tank farm and walked along a nearby trail.
“I took a picture with my phone of the trail signs, and behind it is the guard station (for the Kinder Morgan tank farm),” he said. “I didn’t think anything of it, except the guy came out of the guard booth and said, ‘You can’t take pictures here.’ I said, ‘OK, fine,’ and walked down the trail.”
Takaro suspects the guard took down his licence plate number, and that's how police tracked him down.
Takaro is a participant in the National Energy Board's hearing for the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion. The officer also informed Takaro that police were aware he was on Burnaby Mountain during the protests.
“The worst part is they called my daughter,” Takaro said. “I find it really weird, kind of spooky and intimidating.”
This story first appeared in our sister publication the Burnaby Now. Read the full version here.
