British Columbia

Recent revelations that the RCMP spied on Indigenous environmental rights activist Clayton Thomas-Muller should not be dismissed as routine monitoring. They reveal a long-term, national energy strategy that is coming increasingly into conflict with Indigenous rights and assertions of Indigenous jurisdiction over lands and resources.

Marc Eliesen has withdrawn as an intervenor in the federal government’s review of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline and oil tanker expansion project, detailing his reasons for quitting in a scathing 1,500 word letter to the National Energy Board.

Eliesen is the former CEO of B.C. Hydro and the former Chair of Manitoba Hydro. A deputy minister in seven different federal and provincial governments, Eliesen has forty years’ executive experience in the energy sector, including as a board member at Suncor.

A 135-metre container ship laden with hundreds of tonnes of bunker and diesel fuel is adrift off the west coast of Haida Gwaii, says the Canadian Forces' Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria.

The Russian container ship Simushir is about 25 kilometres off Tasu Sound, according to the centre. 

The Canadian Coast Guard says the ship was incapacitated in gale force winds early this morning around 1:30 a.m. PT.

In response to the announcement of the approval of permits for the shipment of US thermal coal through Greater Vancouver, the Fraser River, and up the Salish Sea to Texada Island, residents in the region protested by occupying the Sabine Channel on Saturday, October 4.

The company, Imperial Metals, asked the courts for an injunction to force the group to stop its protest.

On Wednesday, the courts agreed, but ruled the injunction would be only temporary and that it couldn't be enforced until Oct. 14.

Rhoda Quock, spokeswoman for the Klabona Keepers, called it an incredible victory, not only for those blockading, but for all indigenous nations facing similar situations.

Speaking at a packed university forum last week, long-time energy journalist Andrew Nikiforuk warned British Columbians to be wary of the “extreme energy” of LNG – a fossil fuel that is environmentally reckless, of dubious benefit to B.C., and financially risky to pursue, he argued.

Yet the Clark government is wrongheadedly pushing it, said the author, with serious consequences to B.C.'s wilderness, water and climate.

“You need a public inquiry.  You need to slow down and rethink this whole thing,” urged Nikiforuk at Quest University on Thursday.

Running small non-profit organizations in British Columbia will become much more difficult if the government proceeds with a proposed change that will make it easy for opponents to tie them up in court, say critics of the province's direction.

"They are making life for organizations like ours more complicated," said Jim Wright, the president of the Garden City Conservation Society in Richmond.

The Federal Court of Appeal has granted leave to the Gitxaala Nation to apply for judicial review of the Northern Gateway pipeline project's approval.

The Gitxaala is challenging the federal cabinet's approval of the Enbridge project.

The court application argues that the federal Conservative cabinet did not consider the Gitxaala's aboriginal rights and title in approving the oil pipeline proposed by Calgary-based Enbridge.

Malaysian state-owned energy company Petronas is threatening to pull out of a liquefied natural gas project on the north coast of British Columbia, the Financial Times reported Thursday.

The newspaper said Petronas chief executive Shamsul Abbas was ready to call off the $10-billion project amid a delayed regulatory approval process, plans by the provincial government to impose an LNG tax and a "lack of appropriate incentives."