A judge has granted a temporary injunction which allows a company to continue exploring for oil on the Thunderchild First Nation free of interference from protesters.

The week-long injunction was granted Friday morning by Justice Gerald Allbright at Court of Queen’s Bench in Saskatoon.

Chris Boychuk, the lawyer representing Thunderchild Chief Delbert Wapass and council, says for safety reasons it is important protesters are prevented from disrupting seismic testing and the work is allowed to carry on.

“But key here is the fact that there’s close to 30 undetonated live dynamite charges on the disputed area,” he says. “So each one of those charges is a little more than a pound of dynamite. If anything is set off while someone is in the vicinity of the shot holes, they can be seriously injured or killed.”

Nevertheless, Emil Bell from the Canoe Lake First Nation, who was on hand in Saskatoon to support the Thunderchild protesters, says no one has the right to desecrate what are sacred grounds.

“The whole issue is, you know, protecting Mother Earth from getting raped continuously,” he says. “We keep using these damn stupid excuses, like we need all of this oil and everything when there’s alternate means like the sun.”

The protesters have been occupying land on the First Nation for more than a week.

The interim order expires next Thursday afternoon and both sides will be back in court again next week to further present their arguments.