The B.C. government is poised to give an effective veto to First Nations over fish farm tenures in their territories, a historic concession that reaches beyond the traditional court-ordered requirement that Indigenous groups be consulted and accommodated on resource decisions on their lands.
Nine anti-pipeline protesters who were trying to blockade the Kinder Morgan tank farm on Burnaby Mountain will be sentenced on June 28 after a B.C. Supreme Court judge found that they were all guilty of criminal contempt of court for violating an injunction on March 17.
Justice Kenneth Afflect said Monday that the BC Prosecution Service proved beyond a reasonable doubt that “the accused disobeyed a court order in a public way, with intent, knowledge or recklessness that the act will tend to depreciate the authority of the court.”
VANCOUVER — Cedar George-Parker remembers the moment he decided to devote his life to defending Indigenous people and their traditional territories. It was the one-year anniversary of a shooting at his high school that killed four of his classmates in Marysville, Wash.
"I dropped to my knees and I said, 'I'm going to make a change in the world,' " he recalled.
Local leaders were neither told nor invited to the meeting with the prime minister, writer says
June 14, 2018
Neither the Ts’elxwéyeqw Tribe nor the Sto:lo Nation Chiefs’ Council were invited to attend the meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on June 5, 2018. We were not notified of the meeting and learned about it through the Chilliwack Progress article, rather than anyone from the Indigenous Advisory and Monitoring Committee. We were also not notified of the intent of the meeting nor why the Prime Minister was attending.
The Coldwater Indian Band alleges that someone tampered with evidence submitted by Kinder Morgan to Canada’s pipeline regulator to avoid a costly route change on the company's Trans Mountain expansion project.
The Texas-based energy company has proposed to install the new oil pipeline near an aquifer that provides drinking water for the First Nation in the central interior region of British Columbia.
With the debate over the Trans Mountain Pipeline and tankers project at fever pitch, another project with enormous climate impacts is slipping under the radar. After B.C. announced new climate commitments in May, LNG Canada’s CEO hinted construction will start soon. More recently, the Malaysian multinational Petronas announced a 25-per-cent stake in the LNG Canada project.
LNG Canada’s final investment decision is imminent.
VANCOUVER—The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion may run into more obstacles that could cause serious delays, according to analysis by environmental law organizations.
Experts say the timeline for the pipeline’s completion could be pushed back by as much two years, with over 1,000 permits unresolved, no determined basic route and as many as 25 hearings yet to be conducted.
Kinder Morgan put fish, porpoises, sea lions and other marine life in danger during recent construction work near an oil terminal in Vancouver, says a leaked federal letter that warns the company could face prosecution for its violations.
The letter from the federal Fisheries and Oceans Department (DFO) notes that the company also went months without filing mandatory monitoring reports to the government and First Nations before federal officials noticed the Texas company was breaking the rules.
June 6,, 2018 - Ottawa’s decision to nationalize the Trans Mountain pipeline project will make it the owner of a spur line that feeds Alberta oil to Washington State’s refineries – and opens up a new front in Canada’s conflict with foes of increased oil capacity.
An environmental coalition in Washington State is gearing up to battle the new owner of the pipeline project, saying Kinder Morgan’s pipeline plans include additional capacity to ship oil to their jurisdiction.
Describing something as being in “the national interest” gives it a sense of gravitas, of over-arching public purpose.
So it always struck me as odd to hear Justin Trudeau say that the building the Kinder Morgan pipeline was “in the national interest.”
How can something be in the national interest when it would significantly contribute to the destruction of the very planet that sustains us? Can something really serve our interest as a nation when it undermines our more basic interest as humans?
