Report on Week of Action to Stop the Kinder Morgan Buyout

26/08/18
Author: 
Protect the Inlet
Our week of action to stop the Kinder Morgan buyout started as BC topped the list for the worst air quality in the world. Raging forest fires fueled by climate change-driven drought and heat waves choked us every day but the last, filling our actions and events with an urgency you could almost feel.
 
MONDAY

Public health experts joined the blockade in the smoke to plead for climate action to prevent a massive public health crisis. 

Five front line blockaders were arrested while doctors and health professionals connected the dots between fossil fuel projects like Kinder Morgan and the increased severity of forest fires. Julia interviewed Dr. Tim Takaro at the gates of Westridge:
WATCH JULIA'S INTERVIEW WITH DR. TAKARO
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TUESDAY
 
Two Indigenous elders were arrested for blocking traffic at the Westridge Tanker Terminal. They held ceremony alongside Chief Judy Wilson of the Neskonlith Band of the Secwépemc Nation, Secretary Treasurer of the BC Union of Indian Chiefs.
 
Chief Wilson said, “I came here today to support those taking action at the tank farm, and am also aware that the action will be moving east, and I will be there too. Our people will never give up no matter who owns this pipeline."
WATCH CHIEF JUDY WILSON
 
WEDNESDAY
           
We made our way to Nanaimo to make our voices heard outside the Liberal Cabinet Retreat. Justin Trudeau was forced to listen to criticism from civil society, unions, grandparents and children who told him that there is no conceivable way to fight climate change while building pipelines.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the convention centre in the thick smoke as we livestreamed for hours, gathering hundreds of messages of support from across the country.
 
THURSDAY
 
MP Hedy Fry cancelled a $500 a plate fundraiser hosting Finance Minister Bill Morneau after we organized a protest, then we tracked their high donors to another hotel and made sure they knew no Liberal fundraiser would go undisrupted. We crashed the event and kept consent and climate change on the agenda.
 
FRIDAY

A poet and three seniors took bold action and were arrested at Kinder Morgan's oil tanker terminal construction site. 

Red dresses hung on a line across the entry road, representing MMIW (Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women) and honouring the communities who face intolerable suffering and loss due to the continued attacks on the safety of their Indigenous territories.

Advocates spoke of the higher rates of violence and abuse that accompany work camps of mega projects like Kinder Morgan's pipeline inflicted on women and children in vulnerable communities.
 
Rita Wong, Emily Carr professor and poet
 
Saturday

The final day started at Kwekwecnewtxw, the Watch House on Burnaby Mountain, as we hosted Canadian Writers Against Kinder Morgan Expansion (CWAKE). They performed submissions by some of the most celebrated storytellers and writers in the country, including Margaret Atwood.

At the gates, 8 bold action takers blockaded the construction site gates until it was clear Kinder Morgan was not going to call the police.
Our line of defence against the government and Kinder Morgan is growing in size and strength. As we await the Federal Court of Appeal decision on numerous cases against the pipeline on Thursday, we stand in power with the nations affected, and their allies, who continue to put their bodies on the line in resistance to this project. 

Get up to speed for the court case verdicts here. 

In love and solidarity (and exhaustion),

Julia on behalf of Sarah, Howie and the Protect the Inlet Team
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Category: 
British Columbia
Canada
Indigenous Peoples
Oil - Pipelines
Protest - Revolt