Poking fun at Kinder Morgan

Bulging eyes, scrunched noses, bared teeth — anti-oil pipeline protesters are facing off against energy giant Kinder Morgan with the meanest mugs they can muster.

Scores of people are posting snarling selfies online after legal arguments made in BC Supreme Court last week that facial expressions constitute assault.

Photo: Twitter

Kinder Morgan lawyer Bill Kaplan told the court that activists who have blocked a subsidiary pipeline builder in a Metro Vancouver conservation area obstructed workers in part by making faces. Millions in damages are being sought.

A social media meme poking fun at the assertion has gone viral. Professed environmental advocates, random members of the public, at least one of the defendants and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson have uploaded interpretative photos dubbed the "Kinder Morgan face."

"It feels a little bit like Kinder Morgan are stepping in it," said Stephen Collis, one of five defendants named in two legal actions, adding he finds the joke hilarious.

"This is one of the ones where they really did put their foot in their mouth. People are going to pick up on that."

Three days of hearings into an injunction application against the protesters wrapped up on Friday, with a judge reserving his decision until Nov. 17.

Kaplan had argued the defendants conspired against Kinder Morgan, employing social media and telephone networks to harm the oil company and pipeline builder Trans Mountain as they seek to nearly triple capacity by expanding a route under Burnaby Mountain.

He entered into evidence photographs of protesters wearing facial expressions he said demonstrate anger and violence.

"One of the things I will argue is that is not only intimidation, but that is actually an assault," he said on Wednesday.

In his reply to the court two days later, Kaplan reiterated his position and said obstruction amounts to assault. He did not return to the depictions of protesters' demeanours.