First Nations Prepare for Arrest to Stop Site C Dam
Treaty 8 Stewards of the Land call on Trudeau to stop megadam in B.C.'s Peace Valley
ROCKY MOUNTAIN FORT CAMP, BC, Jan. 7, 2016 /CNW/ - First Nations members camped out at an historic fort site slated for destruction by the Site C dam say they are prepared to face arrest to protect their traditional territory.
With its echoes of Hollywood movies, it’s not surprising that an armed uprising by white ranchers in the American West wanting free range over public land has gained international attention.
But while the ranchers and self-proclaimed militia are occupying an abandoned federal building in southeast Oregon, there’s a similar — albeit more peaceful — occupation taking place in northeastern British Columbia.
B.C. Hydro says it's speaking with Site C dam protesters and local authorities to try to end a standoff on the south bank of the Peace River.
A handful of protesters have been camped at the Rocky Mountain Fort site since mid-December. On Dec. 30, Hydro posted an eviction notice at the camp, and protesters have turned back crews clearing the south bank of the river for construction on the $8.8-billion hydroelectric project.
Three protesters at a construction site for the Site C dam near Fort St. John in northern B.C. have been arrested for blocking vehicles from entering the work site, RCMP said late Wednesday in a statement.
Cpl. Dave Tyreman said RCMP received a report of protesters blocking the roadway shortly after 10 a.m. PT. When officers arrived, he said, they found a man and woman blocking vehicles.
VANCOUVER – First Nations protesting the construction of the $9-billion Site C dam in northeastern British Columbia are preparing for their own arrests while they implore Prime Minister Justin Trudeau intervene to stop the hydroelectric project.
Helen Knott of the Prophet River First Nation said in an interview from the protest site that she and six other demonstrators are camped at Rocky Mountain Fort, the former site of a North West Company fur-trading post established in 1794 on the west side of the Moberly River, near Fort St. John.
“You remember that story that the elder told us? Down the way where the Peace River meets the Halfway River?” I asked her, referring to the camp we had over three years ago.
METRO VANCOUVER -- As the federal review of Kinder Morgan’s $6.8-billion Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion nears its end, at least a dozen First Nations continue to say the review is flawed, and they oppose the project over its potential environmental effects.
Those effects, they say, include the risk of tanker spills in Burrard Inlet.
Barring intervention in the review process by the new federal government under Justin Trudeau, these First Nations are prepared to take their fight to the courts.
At the headwaters of the Bridge River in southwestern British Columbia, Bridge Glacier is breaking apart. The lake at the base of the glacier is littered with icebergs. Some are full of cracks and dirt, others pale blue and recently born. Here and there are little bits of ice that are almost gone, the colour of ice cubes in water on a summer day.
Every year, the lake is getting bigger and the glacier is getting smaller. Over the past 40 years, Bridge Glacier has retreated more than three and a half kilometres.
One of the most important reports submitted to the National Energy Board’s review of Kinder Morgan’s proposed Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion has been denied, according to a biologist with one of the hearing’s intervenors.
