Vancouverites to make mass pledge to resist Kinder Morgan

People at a mass rally against Kinder Morgan on Saturday are expected to make a group pledge to take escalating actions if the pipeline project is approved.

The event will begin at City Hall at noon and is expected to draw hundreds of people including Indigenous, provincial and municipal leaders, as well as Green Party Leader Elizabeth May.

Eric Lescarbeau of Climate Convergence, the group that organized the event, said people will pledge to resist Kinder Morgan’s proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

He said those who pledge will be added to a group that will be trained in different tactics and strategies to resist and do “whatever it takes” to stop the pipeline if it’s approved by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The federal cabinet has until Dec. 19 to make its final decision on the project.

“I don’t want to be too specific,” Lescarbeau said.

“Basically they’ll be organizing efforts to bring those people together.”

During this weekend’s event, people will be asked to cross yellow tape as a way to symbolically pledge their resistance to Kinder Morgan’s proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

“We’re going to kind of be recreating the arrests that happened on Burnaby Mountain,” Lescarbeau said, referring to the dozens of people who were arrested for civil contempt after trespassing onto Kinder Morgan’s work site two years ago.

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Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs was one of the people arrested on the mountain, and will be leading that part of the rally.

“I have continuously and consistently indicated my willingness to be arrested a second time or more if necessary,” Phillip said.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that as we move forward this whole issue will intensify, and the writing is on the wall in that regard.”

Phillip said this weekend’s rally will mark the beginning of large-scale, Standing Rock-like protests that will happen if the Trans Mountain project is approved.

“It’s not over with just Trudeau giving the green light to this project, people will continue to oppose and obstruct and protest,” he said.

“What triggered Standing Rock is the fact that the company was out on the land attempting to actually construct the pipeline.

“In the event that Kinder Morgan actually gets to that place, you can expect the same reaction.”

Lescarbeau said resistance of fossil fuel projects is a must given the dire impacts of climate change.

“Science has been very clear on this, there’s no wiggle room,” he said.

“Either we stop the expansion of the fossil fuel industry or we’re going to be facing increasingly painful impacts.”

[Top photo: JENNIFER GAUTHIER/METRO FILEGrand Chief Stewart Phillip, the head of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, led protesters down a muddy trail deep into the conservation area’s forest on Nov. 27, 2014, where Kinder Morgan continued work at a second injunction-protected site. Phillip, his mother and several others then crossed the police tape into the work area and were arrested by RCMP, joining more than 100 others who have been willingly arrested since police began enforcing the injunction.]