Canada

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government engaged in “gamesmanship,” acted in “bad faith,” and then “sought to suppress the evidence” of its actions in order to approve a major west coast pipeline in 2016, says newly-released court documents obtained by National Observer.

Part one - Stewart Phillip reflects on his roots and the fight ahead

May 14, 2018 - A crowd of hundreds had come together in downtown Vancouver very quickly.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau said Wednesday he is prepared to protect the Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion to the west coast against financial loss.

The Trudeau Liberals have been in discussions with Alberta as well as the proponent of Trans Mountain, Kinder Morgan, over an arrangement to use public money to back the pipeline.​ British Columbia NDP Premier John Horgan, however, has pledged to use all legal tools available to block its construction.

“It’s so rare for people outside the province of Alberta to see that there is opposition here,” said Emma Jackson, co-founder of Climate Justice Edmonton.

“Don’t bank on it.”

TD was one of six major Canadian financial institutions targeted by demonstrators, but was first in their crosshairs.

When lawyers for B.C. Premier John Horgan’s government return to the courtroom this summer in the continuing battle over the Site C dam, their co-defendants will be notably absent.

The federal government, which approved the $10.7-billion project in 2014, has served notice to the courts that it will not oppose an injunction that aims to halt construction.

A primary lesson in political communications is that there is room in the public mind for only one big political news story at a time, and whoever drives that one big story wins twice: their story sets the headlines, and stories they don’t like are pushed to the margins.

Trans Mountain’s expansion was never commercially viable. It has needed unprecedented support from the get-go when in 2011 the National Energy Board (NEB) approved a $286-million special fee fought by Canadian oil producers. Chevron described it at the time as an “extraordinary precedent … If they (Kinder Morgan) need financing, then they should go to the market” and get it. 

May 9th 2018

A Kinder Morgan shareholder vote for an annual environmental sustainability report indicates investor concern about the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion proposal, says an Indigenous leader who addressed the company's annual shareholder meeting in Houston on Wednesday.

Chief Judy Wilson was among a group of Canadian Indigenous leaders who reaffirmed their opposition to the Trans Mountain proposal at the meeting where shareholders passed two of three non-binding proposals calling for improved environmental reporting.