NDP MP Kennedy Stewart and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May will be among the speakers at the upcoming Council of Canadians’ ‘Separate Oil and State!’ emergency rally on Parliament Hill.
The Council of Canadians is preparing to rally against federal legislation intended to impose the Kinder Morgan tar sands pipeline on British Columbia.
The Globe and Mail reports, “Ottawa is preparing to counter British Columbia’s bid to control the flow of oil through the province with legislation that will enhance federal power to push through the Trans Mountain pipeline. …’We think that federal jurisdiction is clear; we’re looking at legislation to see how we can enhance that’, federal Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr said in an interview on Wednesday.”
It adds, “In an effort to blunt the impact of B.C.’s reference to the [B.C. Court of Appeal to determine whether it has the authority to regulate the movement of diluted bitumen through its territory], Ottawa is preparing legislation that would not only declare federal jurisdiction over the project, but give it added clout to enforce it.”
The article also notes, “Mr. Carr said the government has not yet decided the exact nature of the legislation.”
Council of Canadians energy and climate justice campaigner Andrea Harden-Donahue says, “Please join me for an emergency rally on Parliament Hill to ‘Separate Oil and State! #StopKM’.”
She highlights, “The Council of Canadians is hosting this rally and will be joined by local groups, labour activists and concerned people that reject this heavy handed response from the federal government and want to stand in solidarity with Indigenous-led opposition to the Kinder Morgan pipeline.”
Confirmed speakers for the rally now include:
Grand Chief of Okanagan Nation and president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs Stewart Phillip (via phone)
Maude Barlow, Council of Canadians honorary chairperson
Kennedy Stewart, MP for Burnaby South
Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party
For more on the rally – which we will hold as soon as the legislation is tabled in the House of Commons – please see our Facebook event page.
To join those who have already signed our ‘Back off Trudeau, respect Indigenous rights and BC’s no to Kinder Morgan’ online petition, click here.