Protest - Revolt

Site C protest campers in court Monday

Lawyer hired by defendants a veteran of Burnaby Mountain pipeline injunctions

Members of a protest camp who have blocked Site C dam construction for 50 days will have a hearing on an injunction to remove them Feb. 22.

It's the first time BC Hydro and Rocky Mountain Fort campers have been in court since the camp was established Dec. 31.

For immediate release                                                                                                      

February 17, 2016

Site C Dam construction must be halted until B.C.’s Auditor General completes much-needed independent review, wide array of groups say

VICTORIA –First Nations, labour, environmental and legal organizations are calling on the B.C. and federal governments to suspend construction of the Site C dam pending completion and full consideration of an independent review by B.C.’s Auditor General.

Closing speech by Paula Gioia, the European Youth International Coordination Committee (ICC) member of La Via Campesina, at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) colloquium on Global governance/politics, climate justice & agrarian/social justice: linkages and challenges. 4-5 

February 2016, The Hague, Netherlands

See the video here:http://350.org/peoples-injunction/?akid=11074.684698.mEsGX2&rd=1&t=4&utm_medium=email

Burnaby residents could “suffer extreme consequences” if a major earthquake were to hit the Kinder Morgan pipeline and tank farm, according to a group of local citizens against the pipeline expansion.

Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion (BROKE) presented its final argument to the three-person National Energy Board panel on Thursday, at the Delta Burnaby Hotel and Conference Centre. 

“A major earthquake in this region is not a remote possibility,” said BROKE’s lawyer Neil Chantler. “It’s not a question of if, but when.”

I have two Canadian updates this week. The first is from Nora Loreto on what’s happening in Quebec after the fall’s anti-austerity strikes. Nora is a Quebec City-based journalist and labour activist. She gives an account not only of what happened during the strikes in Quebec, but also what to expect in their wake (see the previous podcast, from just before this strike wave, here).

Auckland, New Zealand - One of the biggest and most controversial trade deals in history was signed on Thursday by ministers from the Asia-Pacific region and the Americas, as hundreds of protesters hit the streets to denounce it.

Security was stepped up across Auckland for representatives who travelled here to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) - a deal involving 12 economies worth about $28 trillion.

The Liberal plan to instill confidence in environmental assessments for pipeline megaprojects was panned Thursday by several First Nations groups as well as the mayor of Burnaby, B.C., who accused the federal government of being captured by the oil industry.

A handful of anti-pipeline activists with lock cutters and the will to get arrested have become Canadian oil producers’ newest hurdle to delivering crude to markets.

On Saturday, over 200 protestors gathered outside of the Kinder Morgan National Energy Board (NEB) hearings in Burnaby, B.C.

The environmental review hearings for the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline began on January 19, but members of the general public have not been allowed to attend.

"They call this a public hearing, but that's a misnomer," said Burnaby City Councillor Sav Dhaliwal. "There's no public in there. There isn't any. Public hearing without the public…concerned citizens are not allowed to go in there."