The air was crisp and cold as they trekked up Burnaby Mountain early on Saturday morning. People's breath came out in white puffs as each of the volunteer construction workers carried two planks of wood. Their goal was to build a traditional Indigenous "watch house" to monitor Texas-based Kinder Morgan as it proceeds with construction of its Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
Protesters around Vancouver held duelling rallies on Saturday, some welcoming Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project with others decrying it.
Both sides delivered impassioned arguments about the proposed expansion.
ndigenous leaders beat drums and sang out against the project Saturday morning, saying they won't step aside for construction.
The pipeline runs between Edmonton and Burnaby. Kinder Morgan received federal approval for an expansion in November 2016.
The government’s decision to build the dam makes it abundantly clear that the struggle to defend indigenous rights and the environment must be build outside of parliament
Gary Porter is a member of the New Democratic Party in British Columbia. This article was published in the NDP Socialist Caucus magazine, Turn Left, which was distributed to delegates at last month’s federal NDP convention.
A mass demonstration is planned in the Vancouver, B.C., metro area Saturday against the expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline project. Nearly 7,000 Coast Salish Water Protectors have signed up to participate.
Building in the courts and halls of Canadian government for years, conflict over the mammoth Trans Mountain tar- sands oil-pipeline expansion is expected to spill into the streets of British Columbia Saturday with massive civil disobedience demonstrations.
BC Hydro says it faces substantial new costs for the Site C dam after agreeing to suspend work on a portion of the construction until the courts can hear an injunction application this summer by a First Nation seeking to block the $10.7-billion project.
The West Moberly First Nation is seeking an interim injunction to halt the project pending a full civil trial that aims to kill Site C. A hearing on the interim injunction application is expected to begin in July.
A group of North Coast First Nation hereditary leaders says it is in full support of the federal government’s proposed oil tanker ban.
The Allied Tribes of Lax Kw’alaams says there have been misconceptions about who represents the hereditary leadership of the First Nation. The leadership group says that the Chief’s Council set up to advise proponents of the Eagle Spirit Energy project has been misrepresented as the voice for hereditary leaders in Lax Kw’alaams.
