Tomorrow, the next round of National Energy Board hearings for the Trans-Mountain Kinder Morgan pipeline are set to start. With them, Prime Minister Trudeau and this government will be breaking their first big climate promise.
The new government campaigned against the broken NEB reviews of tar sands pipelines. But now, under pressure from big oil, they’re letting both the Kinder Morgan and Energy East reviews proceed -- with no consideration of climate change, without listening to communities, and without respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Seven people were arrested Monday morning while protesting the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline.
According to Burnaby RCMP, four protesters boarded a barge sitting about 100 metres offshore at Westridge Marine Terminal on Sunday, and remained there overnight.
Activists have issued a news release claiming that they've seized a drilling barge near Westridge Marine Terminal. Around noon, it was boarded by two activists.
One of the more intriguing demands by those opposing the Site C dam is that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau step in and block its construction, using the argument that the dam infringes First Nations' rights and poses environmental risk.
The odds of the Trudeau government taking such an extraordinary action are, of course, fairly remote. But the root of the argument -- that the dam tramples on First Nations' rights -- remains very much alive even while the dam's construction proceeds every day.
We recently travelled to northeastern B.C.’s Peace Valley to meet with First Nations members and local landowners camped out at a remote historic fort site slated for destruction by the Site C dam.
The Treaty 8 Stewards of the Land told media they’re willing to risk arrest to stop BC Hydro from clear cutting forests around Rocky Mountain Fort, on the west side of Moberly River. The site, selected by explorer Alexander Mackenzie as mainland B.C.’s first trading post, is on Treaty 8 First Nations’ traditional territory.
Yesterday, the government of British Columbia joined Indigenous peoples, community groups, cities, climate activists, and thousands of others in opposing the Kinder Morgan Trans-Mountain tar sands pipeline.
Despite this, and despite their campaign promise to the contrary, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the federal government are proceeding with a review of the pipeline that ignores climate change, silences communities, and refuses to respect the rights of Indigenous peoples.
Saying the utility was "reckless" and escalating tensions, Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs Grand Chief Stewart Phillip called on BC Hydro to "back off" a First Nations encampment near Site C dam construction Friday.
On Friday, the UBCIC issued a release supporting a small group of campers living on the south bank of the Peace River at Rocky Mountain Fort, an 18th-century fur trade post that will be inundated beneath the $8.8 billion project's reservoir.
UBCIC Calls on BC Hydro to Back off from Peaceful Site C Protestors in Treaty 8 Territory
(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C.- January 8th, 2016) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) is denouncing BC Hydro's deliberately provocative and reckless attempts at fast tracking construction on the proposed Site C project despite the legal uncertainty of the project moving forward.
