The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion proposal may have received the thumbs-up from Canada and BC, but opponents are still hoping a court decision might stop the $6.8 billion project in its tracks.

By an 8-2 vote on Feb. 22, Vancouver city council decided to request a judicial review of the environmental assessment of the pipeline project by the BC government. The Green Party’s member, Adriane Carr, who brought forward the motion, said she was particularly impressed by Tsleil-Waututh councillor Charlene Aleck’s submission to council.

Meanwhile, an application was filed in BC Supreme Court on Jan. 31 that alleges that Kinder Morgan’s approval was tainted by government corruption.

Democracy Watch and the PIPE UP Network are asking the court to review the Government of British Columbia’s approval of the company’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project. The groups allege that the BC government created a conflict of interest when it accepted $550,000 in Liberal Party donations from oil companies, including Kinder Morgan.

They also say that conflict was compounded when Premier Christy Clark received a yearly stipend of $50,000 from the party during the same years the donations were made, although she recently announced she is no longer accepting the payments.

The application says that the financial benefits mean that Clark and her ministers should not have been allowed to make a decision on the Trans Mountain pipeline.