When They Came For The Beach

IT'S COMING DOWN TO THE WIRE!   On Tuesday June 18, Trudeau will announce the fate of the Trans Mountain Expansion Project. Leading up to this, Robyn Allan is releasing a new novel which explores the fiction behind Ottawa’s commitment to address climate change and how Trans Mountain’s expansion is a global warming machine.

You can help us to get the word out to people who may not read the news frequently, by sharing this new novel, which is timed to come out on June 14, ahead of the federal government’s decision following consultations with First Nations along the pipeline route.

Robyn Allan, former president and CEO of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia and former senior economist for Central One, has written extensively on the flawed National Energy Board review process and ill-advised purchase of the Trans Mountain pipeline by the government of Canada, and this is her first foray into creative fiction after years of writing opinion pieces and other research articles.

Allan backs up her counterclaims against the “false narrative,” which she says plays up economic benefits and diminishes environmental risks, with a bibliography with citations in the novel. In particular, she notes that the economics behind the renewed approval of the pipeline from the Liberal government was based on a 2015 analysis, when Alberta oil was expected to reach $80 per barrel, compared to the $40 to $50 a barrel it goes for today.

“The best way to attack Ottawa’s fictional narrative on addressing climate change, along with its false pretense that Trans Mountain’s expansion is beneficial, was to write a novel,” explains Allan. “I leave it to my characters to expose one falsehood after another as they discover how corroded our political and regulatory institutions have become.” Because the characters discover truths that have been kept from most Canadians, Allan provides readers with a companion document—an annotated bibliography with citations from the novel.

The novel and bibliography will be released June 14: novel.robynallan.com

The content of the book can be read on the site for free as well as the bibliography. Digital copies (PDF, EPUB, and MOBI) will be available for purchase. Follow Robyn Allan on twitter @robynallan for announcements about when future audio chapters are released. There is currently no print edition planned. The audio book is also being released in parts for free: https://soundcloud.com/robyn_allan/when-they-came-for-the-beach-part-1. 

"When They Came for the Beach chronicles the experiences of a group of twenty-somethings who were raised and live in the West End of Vancouver and what they choose to do when they learn about the Trans Mountain expansion project.

Trainer Richards, the book’s main character, and her friends dig below the surface of the Trans Mountain expansion proposal and find that entrenched corporate influence and political deception have quietly joined forces to take away everything they value, and the ecosystem along with it. 

Trainer lives a simple life. She commutes by bike from her West End studio apartment to her minimum wage security guard job in downtown Vancouver and plays volleyball on warm summer nights with her friends at Sunset Beach. Faced with the prospect of a bay-load of oil tankers parked in English Bay because a US multinational wants to build a heavy oil pipeline to ship toxic tar sands crude to Asia, Trainer’s reality implodes. 

Armed with a conviction to do something before it’s too late, Trainer, her friends, and a growing community of support, find that the decision-makers keep changing the rules of engagement. Friends of English Bay must find new ways to make their voices heard and their concerns matter. Protecting their future requires a special kind of courage—and a new brand of hope. Can they find what they need before time runs out?"