Walk 4 the Salish Sea!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/955947501203696/
May 25 – May 28
May 25 at 10 AM to May 28 at 5 PM
"Mile 0"
1 Douglas street, Victoria
Now is the is the time to walk the talk on indigenous rights, climate change and building a clean energy future--as many other countries are already doing.
Your presence, voice and passion for protection of the earth's ecological balance, water, climate justice, the coast, people, nature and democracy, for all future generations and those who have struggled before us, is called for at the Walk for the Salish Sea: Against Tar Sands, Kinder Morgan and all fossil fuel expansion--time to to keep it in the ground!!!
Please join to put your feet, your bike tires, roller blades... wheelchair wheels to the ground for a socially just, equitable and sustainable future and join all or any part of this 4-day walk, run or roll, from Songhees to Tsleil-Waututh territory ( aka Victoria to the Kinder Morgan terminal in Burnaby) in unity and solidarity with the 22 municipalities, 59 First Nations and hundreds of thousands of BC citizens opposed to the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain expansion! Join First Nations, youth, environmentalists and concerned citizens struggling to stop lethal tar sands expansion, protect global climate, Southern resident orcas, marine ecosystems and biodoversity and the indigenous livelihoods, ways of life, local economies and communities of the Salish Sea!! So much is at stake!
Our common call: No more tar sands expansion! No more pipelines and tankers! No more dangerous fossil fuel exports on the Salish Sea!
Participants are encouraged to seek online donations through the Pull Together campaign -Walk 4 the Salish Sea Team, raising funds to support the Coldwater and Tsleil-waututh First Nations legal defense against the Kinder Morgan pipeline/tanker expasnion. A link to the online doantions site will be posted here soon.
Join folks from all walks of life: from the islands, Metro Vancouver, the Puget Sound basin, and the Fraser river watershed up the planned route of the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion, to come together as First Nations, labour, youth, students, faith groups, ENGOS, social justice and anti-poverty groups, LGBTQI community, fishermen/women, the eco-tourism sector, boaters , cyclists and runners -- those whose common love and connection to this coast will not allow us to stand by passively while the capitalist colonial resource extraction system continues to spread its toxic industrialization of the natural world, to the peril of future generations.
People are welcomed to join for whatever length of the journey they wish - walking, in wheelchairs, cycling, running, roller-blading, skateboarding - on this pledged mobilization to needless big oil expansion and in solidarity with the First Nations who continue their centuries-long resistance to the colonial/capitalist sysytem that has invaded their lands and impoverished their communties; and who have taken a strong stand resisting economic bribery and denying consent for this project, exercising their rights and legal title, to defend their territories.
The main messages of the Walk are:
1) Respect for Indigenous laws and rights:
Without free, prior, and informed consent, government approval for pipeline/tanker expansion is a violation of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, section 35 of the Canadian constitution on Aboriginal Rights and Title, Douglas Treaty rights and principles of Indigenous laws that require indigenous leaders to be ecological stewards of their lands. How can the government pay lip service to reconciliation while betraying election promises of a new and respectful relationship with the First Nations, most of whom have not given consent to the tar sands/Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion and are being forced to fight it through costly legal battles!
2) Climate leaders don't expand fossil fuel infrastructure:
It makes no sense that Mr. Trudeau is simultaneously claiming Canada will reduce carbon emissions while increasing infrastructure for the combustion of new reserves of some of the planet's dirtiest oil! We call on the federal government to abandon fossil fuel expansion and immediately invest in clean energy infrastructure and job creation that curbs greenhouse gas emissions, not increases them.
3) Water is life:
The risks to rivers, salmon habitat, drinking watersheds, the coast, surrounding communities and local economies from inevitable spills, are not acceptable A massive bitumen spill in the Salish sea or anywhere en route, traversing thousands of salmon-supporting streams and rivers, from Alberta to the coast of BC, cannot be cleaned up, ever!
The mobilization will include large marine wildlife puppets, roaming bank actions, evening programs, infoworkshops, communal camping and dinners, ceremony, reconciliation/talking circles, a rally aboard BC Ferries and entertainament with a peaceful, mass demonstration and concert at the Kinder Morgan Westridge terminal as a final destination of the journey.
Details for trip itinerary tba.
Groups and individuals are encouraged to mobilize from any point of origin and either join in the existing route or meet independently at ground zero on May 28th, for the mass convergence. We are asking for help in arranging group lodging for participants and organizing support events at stop points along the way.
A major obective of the walk is to generate public awareness and direct financial support for Indigenous-led initiaves to stop construction of the Kinder Morgan TMX, recently approved by Parliament.
Proceeds from fundraising will be split three ways between:
1. Raven Trust / Pull Together campaign fundraising for First Nations' legal defense.
2. Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs/Coast Protectors
3. Frontline Indigenous land defense camps, halting pipeline construction.
Partners so far in this initiative include: Coast Protectors, Raven Trust, Pull Together, Greenpeace (Victoria volunteer group), Force of Nature, We Love This Coast, Leap-Victoria, Victoria Council of Canadians, Turning the Tide, and Social Environmental Alliance.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This event will be taking place on the territories of the Lekwungen (Songhees and Xwsepsum/Esquimalt), W̱SÁNEĆ, səlil̓wətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Coast and Straits Salish Nations.
We respecfully recognize that Indigenous resistance to the Kinder Morgan pipeline/tanker expansion is one manifestation of Indigenous resistance to colonization that has been happening since first contact and continues today.
For more information and to volunteer or make a donation please call (in Victoria)l: 778-265-3748
"This is a global movement and not just a fight against another dirty pipeline… This is not simply an indigenous issue; climate change and the catastrophic impacts that we have witnessed to date and the potential impacts that will manifest in the future, are a matter of grave concern of all people around the world.”
Stewart Phillip, Grand Chief of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs
