Energy

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.

The final months of 2015 saw a large growth in support for TUED in the US and UK

In the final months of 2015, seven unions representing approximately 4.6 million workers have joined Trade Unions for Energy Democracy.  Five of the unions are from the US and two are from the UK.

Site C opponents dug in on the south bank of the Peace River say they're not going anywhere, despite an eviction notice from BC Hydro. 

A dozen people opposed to the $8.8-billion dam have been living in shifts at the historic Rocky Mountain Fort since mid-December. The camp is set up on the site of an 18th century fur trade fort, upstream from the confluence of the Peace and Moberly Rivers.  

Site C opponents dug in on the south bank of the Peace River say they're not going anywhere, despite an eviction notice from BC Hydro. 

A dozen people opposed to the $8.8-billion dam have been living in shifts at the historic Rocky Mountain Fort since mid-December. The camp is set up on the site of an 18th century fur trade fort, upstream from the confluence of the Peace and Moberly Rivers.  

The U.S. and China weren’t always Earth’s biggest polluters.

The Paris Agreement is an essentially forward-looking document. In it, global leaders aspire to 1.5°C of warming, beefed-up financing strategies, and regular check-ins to assure nations are on track to phasing out fossil fuels as quickly as possible.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau marked the Paris climate agreement by committing to take on the “tough work that still needs to be accomplished both at home and around the world to implement the agreement.” Part of that tough work will be re-orienting federal funding to stop making the climate crisis worse.

Given Trudeau’s statements on the seriousness of the climate crisis, you might expect that the multi-billion dollar infrastructure program he ran on in the election would already be targeted to reduce carbon pollution. You would be wrong.

In addition to the articles on the Vancouver Ecosocialist web page (www.ecosocialistsvancouver.org) below are a some other sites with important articles and information on the COP21 conference in Paris and related issues:

Peoples Climate Convergence (Vancouver) : http://peoplesclimateconvergence.org/articles-by-subject

Paris Climate Justice: http://www.parisclimatejustice.org/

If Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new cabinet ministers needed any reminder of how difficult their jobs are going to be when it comes to rebuilding trust with First Nations, they got it last week.

Working the crowd, when the Liberal caucus gathered for its annual Christmas party, was Chief Roland Willson, a big man with a powerful voice and an intractable problem he wasn’t going to let anyone ignore.