“For now we see through a glass, darkly” – 1 Corinthians 13:12, The Bible. There is no doubt about it. Premier Christy Clark wants a drastic re-ordering of our provincial economy. In her keynote speech to the Second International LNG conference on May 22, 2014, she declared that the provincial government is looking at “every decision we make through the lens of whether or not it furthers our purpose in creating an LNG industry here in BC … This is our central preoccupation.”
If you want jobs, you need to pump and transport oil and gas, albeit as safely as humanly possible. That's been the mantra from B.C. premier Christy Clark -- a key, many would argue, to her surprise victory in the 2013 provincial election. It's a message one might assume resonates with organized labour in B.C., given that resource extraction has been vital to the province's economy. But union support for Clark's agenda is more complex and even fragmented. The arguments within, and among, unions turn on a couple of debates...
Wells can leak from their drill holes as gas can travel along gaps and cracks in the cement that is used to plug the hole between the steel pipe and the underground rock surfaces, says the 69-page report authored by three University of Waterloo scientists. Photograph by Bryan Schlosser, Regina Leader-Post. Up to 10 per cent of B.C. natural gas wells are leaking and some have become “super-emitters” of methane, which is an environmental and health concern, says a new report.
We need to go beyond petitions, letters, and rallies to stop the government and corporations from destroying Indigenous land and exploiting communities for profit. Direct action initiatives like the Unist'ot'en Camp are an effective way to stop devastating projects like Enbridge's Northern Gateway Pipeline and Chevron-Apache's Pacific Trail fracking pipeline.
The BC government says it is "taking an aggressive approach" to jump start a gigantic new fossil fuel industry in the province -- Liquid Natural Gas (LNG). Thirteen major projects have been proposed so far. The yearly climate pollution resulting from these 13 LNG projects would be:
Locked out for thirteen months, over three hundred IKEA workers in Richmond, BC are still holding out. While setting record profits in 2013, IKEA is trying to impose a two-tier wage system and seriously weaken benefits. The stakes are high as IKEA Richmond sets workplace standards for non-union IKEA stores. Of the twelve IKEA stores in Canada and Quebec, it is the only one unionized outside of Montreal where workers are represented by CSN. Teamsters Local 213 represents the workers in Richmond.
“(Burnaby mayor) Derek Corrigan and his council have taken the position that they won’t speak with us [Kinder Morgan], they won’t engage with us, they won’t co-operate in any way with what we are considering ... I’d much rather see a healthier relationship between us.” [says Kinder Morgan Canada president Ian Anderson]
But he noted the next step would be “us seeking an order of the board to gain access to do the necessary preliminary work” for the tunnel.
At around 9AM on June 3, 2014, approximately 16 cops from the Vancouver Police Department raided a house in East Vancouver under the pretext of investigating six mischief charges related to graffiti tags dating from June, July, and October of 2013. The four residents of the house, and one guest, were removed one by one by police aiming pistols at them. One person inside the house looked out their bedroom window and saw a cop pointing his pistol at him.
More than 250 people attended the 'LNG Pipedreams: Fracked Futures and Community Resistance' counter-forum in Vancouver organized by the Council of Canadians and the Wilderness Committee. Our BC-Yukon regional organizer Leila Darwish, who MC'd the evening, says, "What a great night -- thanks to all you fine folks who came out to the event tonight! Standing room only!
