Crown to charge 15 Coastal GasLink pipeline protesters with criminal contempt

"As to what's in the public interest, I don't know how to unpack that," Peters says.

He doesn't believe the government has an "agenda" but says a lot of people — including companies who believe "they're effectively in business on behalf of the public" — would like to know what the "public interest" means.

Peters says none of his clients wanted to be prosecuted for criminal contempt, but all were ready to defend themselves.

"In effect, they're prepared to up the ante, and say, 'Yeah, but this is our land. Don't come along and tell us that you make a court order that we can't be on our land. That's something that we're prepared to litigate for a very long time,'" he says.