Photo by Murray Bush/ Flux Photo.
Congratulations to these five people for their activism today!
Global News reports, “According to a news release from Maryam Adrangi, an energy and climate campaigner with the Council of Canadians, six people made their way past police undetected into the secured fourth floor of Vancouver’s Sheraton Wall Centre (where a hearing into Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline was taking place). Once inside, they revealed shirts with messages like ‘Stop the Pipelines’ and used police tape to cordon off the hearing area as a ‘crime scene’, said Adrangi.”
In a media release for the action, Sean Devlin commented, “Climate change is killing thousands of people every year, primarily in developing countries and indigenous communities that are the least responsible for creating this problem. Despite this fact, the Joint Review Panel has instructed those participating in the hearings not to talk about climate change. This is a shockingly irresponsible move…”
Metro News notes, “The three-member Joint Review Panel tasked with evaluating the project was ushered out of the room as soon as the protesters entered. Maryam Adrangi, a spokesperson for the largely silent group of five and one of the organizers of a large protest outside the hearings Monday night, said the protesters were not representing any group.”
The Vancouver Media Co-op adds, “All five arrestees have now been released (2pm Pacific Time).”
Northern Gateway involves two 1,200-kilometre underground pipelines. One pipeline would move 525,000 barrels a day of bitumen from Alberta’s tar sands to Kitimat on the coast of the Pacific Ocean (to then be transported on the ocean by 225 super tankers a year), the other would move 193,000 barrels a day of condensate, which is used to dilute the bitumen from the tar sands so that it can flow through the pipelines. A poll in September 2012 found that 60.3 percent of people in British Columbia oppose this pipeline project.
The Joint Review Panel will make a recommendation on the pipeline, but the Harper cabinet will make the final decision on the approval of the project.
