Indigenous Watch House guardian Will George called for a pause in blockades and a "week of ceremony" after 172 people were arrested over the past week blockading Kinder Morgan's pipeline terminal in Burnaby B.C.. George made the announcement on Saturday when 57 people were arrested in a single day blocking the gates to the Texas-based company's tank farm.
Dozens of Indigenous people, community members, families and retired teachers are blocking Kinder Morgan’s front gate on Burnaby Mountain
Coast Salish community members Oceann Hyland and Will George led the protectors in ceremony at the nearby Watch House and then escorted them to Kinder Morgan’s gates.
This week, Alberta premier Rachel Notley threatened to cut oil shipments to B.C. if the province interferes with Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
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.
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.
More than 50 local and North Vancouver Squamish Nation protesters and supporters headed down Capilano Road south of Marine Drive Thursday as they marched to demonstrate outside the Kinder Morgan facility on the North Vancouver waterfront.
