Steve MacLellan

The Supreme Court of Canada has declined to hear five B.C.-based challenges against the approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

Groups determined to overturn the project — two First Nations, environmental organizations and teenage activists — had argued a previous judicial review of the pipeline’s re-approval by the federal government was unfairly denied by a single judge from the Federal Court of Appeal in September.

“Obviously, this pipeline has become a political issue as much as a legal or economic issue,” said lawyer Eugene Kung, who was not named in the application to the Supreme Court but has previously worked to stop the expansion project.

“What the applicants are looking for is just that the laws of Canada be applied when this project is approved. They’ve said that it hasn’t, and that has very real consequences.”