At least 13 demonstrators from Canada, including five from British Columbia, have so far been arrested for “illegal protest activity” related to a Native American-led movement aimed at stopping construction of a pipeline through North Dakota, according to statistics released by the Morton County Sherriff’s Department.
A total of 438 people have been arrested since August in relation to the ongoing movement against the Dakota Access Pipeline LLC construction in North Dakota, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
As cabinet ministers weigh the pros and cons of a major oilsands expansion project that would send tanker traffic soaring in southern B.C. waters, the federal government has announced an unprecedented $1.5-billion investment in marine safety along Canadian coastlines.
A tanker spill of diluted bitumen from Canada’s oils sands could trigger an ecological catastrophe for the Salish Sea. The oil would impact crab, rockfish and other bottom dwellers — as well as salmon and orca whales.
West Coast Environmental Law reacts to federal marine safety announcement
VANCOUVER, BC, Coast Salish Territories – West Coast Environmental Law Association issued the following statement in response to the federal government’s announcement today regarding new marine safety initiatives:
Federal Transportation Minister Marc Garneau says the sinking of the tugboat Nathan E. Stewart shows that oil spill response resources on Canada’s West Coast are inadequate.
In a meeting with the leaders of the Heiltsuk Nation on Sunday, Mr. Garneau also promised he will deliver a promised ban on oil tanker traffic off British Columbia’s North Coast by the end of the year. In fact, an announcement on spill response is expected as early as Monday.
The ministerial panel appointed by the federal government to review the National Energy Board’s appraisal of the Trans Mountain pipeline proposal concluded its report last week without any recommendations.
Instead, the panel posed six troubling questions for the cabinet to consider before it rules on the controversial pipeline next month.
Ottawa had not wanted any recommendations from the panel, but rather sought a broad report that would allow the government to make its own unencumbered decision.
A three-person ministerial panel set up as a kind of complaints desk for the Trans Mountain pipeline project has submitted its final report to the Canadian government.
Federal ministers will find plenty of grievances about the pipeline and the National Energy Board (NEB) regulatory process that approved it in the 60-page report.
On November 30, 2016, a case will come before the Canadian Supreme Court that will have momentous and potentially global implications. In April 2016 the Canadian Supreme Court, which hears only 5 percent of referred cases, agreed to judge an appeal brought by the Inuit community of Clyde River, Nunavut, against a five-year plan to carry out seismic blasting in Baffin Bay. The people who live in Clyde River, situated on Baffin Island, use the waters and ice of the Bay for hunting, a central component of their culture and primary source of food.
