Only three First Nations speakers turn up for federal Indigenous pipeline consultation in Vancouver, B.C.
We don't trust the process, says UBCIC Grand Chief Stewart Phillip
"I attended three consultations and the consensus is clear. The people do not consent to pipelines in our backyards," says Melanie Mark, first Indigenous women elected as an MLA in B.C.
After I became a parent in the early 1990s, I soon became concerned about the environment. I read extensively on the topic, made shifts in my lifestyle choices and aspired to one day be like Scott and Helen Nearing, the 1930s pioneers who advocated simple living for the health of people and nature.
Oil tanker approval would betray written commitment by Liberals.
Sitting in a Burnaby hotel ballroom this week across from three sheepish federal pipeline panelists, I couldn’t help but remember a conversation I had with Justin Trudeau one year ago. “All I want to know,” I asked at a campaign stop, “is does your NEB overhaul apply to Kinder Morgan?”
[Editor's note: Following is one of the many great presentations made to the Ministerial Panel in Burnaby on August 9, 10, and 11. In general the presentations were intelligent, very well researched, and presented with great passion. I was there for most of the day on Wednesday and most of the afternoon/evening on Thursday and I heard no presentations that supported the expansion but many that agreed with Gene that the panel was a sham!]
Presentation – Ministerial Panel – Aug. 10, 2016 – Burnaby, BC
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) is currently engaged in collective bargaining with Canada Post. Unlike in previous rounds, the contracts of both the Urban bargaining unit (covering about 42,000 workers) and the unit of some 8,000 Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers (RSMCs) are being negotiated simultaneously.
In June, the Federal Court of Appeal quashed the federal government’s approval of the controversial Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline, which would ship diluted bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands through the Great Bear Rainforest to the British Columbia coast.
North America has a serious problem with climate change. And the effects are being felt now.
It's apparent in the California drought, atmospheric rivers that have caused massive flooding in Toronto and Calgary, and the lengthening forest-fire season.
This year, parts of Fort McMurray burned down in early May. In May! Not July or August.
Just two months after federal government officials got a standing ovation at the United Nations for embracing a declaration on indigenous rights, the Liberals are facing criticism for issuing authorizations for Site C – a massive dam in northeast B.C. that some First Nations say will harm their way of life.
“It’s an absolute betrayal,” said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs.
Husky says it first detected pipeline problems at 8 p.m. CST on Wednesday, July 20, just as it restarted the flow of oil as part of its Saskatchewan Gathering System expansion project.
