More arrests were made on Burnaby Mountain Saturday, as protesters continued to rally against the proposed construction of a controversial oil pipeline.

Oil giant Kinder Morgan has the courts’ blessing to begin test drilling, but that hasn’t stopped demonstrators from marching up the mountain road.

Sixteen people were taken into custody Saturday, bringing the total to 53 for the week.

RCMP moved into a tent encampment days earlier to enforce a court injunction ordering demonstrators to leave so that work crews can conduct site surveys for the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline.

Protesters were removed Saturday after crossing a police boundary on Burnaby Mountain.

Opponents say the pipeline expansion, which has not yet received federal approval, would add more tankers to Vancouver’s harbour, and increase the risk of an oil spill.

If approved, the pipeline could ship an estimated 900,000 barrels of crude oil a day, from Alberta to B.C.

Kevin Washbrook, an environmentalist who attended the protest, described Kinder Morgan’s actions as “going against the rule of the people.”

“The federal government has let us down and the processes they’ve created like the (National Energy Board) have failed us,” he told CTV Vancouver.

Protesters, which include members of First Nations communities, began camping out on Burnaby mountain in September.

Kim Fink-Jensen said she’s concerned about long-term risk to the environment.

“I feel very strongly that a foreign corporation should not be able to come into a designated conservation area and do this test drilling and put a pipeline through,” she said. “But it’s also about the bigger issue of climate change.”

NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, who was in Burnaby on Saturday, said the public outcry over the project was predictable.

“Unless you have an environmental assessment system that’s credible and thorough, you’re not going to have the public on side,” Mulcair said. “And that’s what’s happening here.”

RCMP said many of the arrests so far have been for civil disobedience, as demonstrators cross into areas police have blocked off.

Staff Sgt. John Buis of the Burnaby RCMP said that one person was also arrested for assault after spitting at a police officer, and another was arrested for obstruction.

With a report from CTV Vancouver's Peter Grainger