Last Wednesday we noted that the Vancouver Observer had reported that, “Members from the Council of Canadians, Greenpeace and Whistler Watch demonstrated in front of the Pan Pacific Whistler Mountainside where (Enbridge, the developers of the Northern Gateway pipeline) were hosting a cocktail reception during the Union of BC Municipalities Annual General Meeting.” More on that at http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=4775.
A rabble.ca blog by Tyler McCreary this weekend adds that, “Signaling the mounting opposition to the Northern Gateway Pipeline across the province, activists in Whistler organized a protest of a reception Enbridge organized for delegates of the Union of British Columbia Municipalities convention. Enbridge had maintained a presence at the meeting in recent years in an attempt to build support for their proposed pipeline.”
“While the B.C. Liberals have been recently touting their environmental credentials, Harjap Grewal, BC-Yukon organizer for the Council of Canadians objected to the B.C. Liberals’ simultaneous support for environmentally devastating industrial mega projects.”
Grewal says, “We need to stand up to Gordon Campbell’s government that tries to paint itself green while supporting an energy corridor that would carry dirty oil from the most environmentally destructive and greenhouse gas intensive project in the world, the Alberta tar sands. We must stop the Enbridge pipeline from being developed.'”
McCreary adds, “The protesters emphasized their complete opposition to the full scope of the tar sands infrastructure projects and the tar sands themselves. Grewal suggested, ‘people are beginning to recognize environmental impact of these projects locally, in Alberta and globally.'”
“Organizers of the Enbridge protest highlighted their support of northern communities fighting the project, particularly the Indigenous peoples whose unceded territories the pipeline would cross.”
“Mel Bazil, a Wet’suwet’en grassroots organizer, issued a statement in solidarity with the protesters. ‘We stand beside our brothers and sisters fighting the tar sands, carbon markets as a false solution, and all the proposed and active pipelines, tankers and refineries.'”
WIN!
Significantly, the UBCM voted at its annual convention to:
1- oppose any expansion of bulk crude oil tanker traffic on the North Coast of British Columbia;
2- petition the federal government to establish a moratorium on bulk crude oil traffic through northern BC coastal waters;
3- oppose tar sands oil being shipped in pipelines across northern BC for loading onto crude oil tankers;
4- demand that the Province of BC maintain the moratorium on off-shore oil and gas exploration and development for all future time;
5- lobby the federal government to maintain the moratorium on west coast offshore exploration and programs for all future time.
McCreary’s blog can be read at http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/tylermccreary/2010/10/union-bc-municipalities-oppose-oil-tankers-oil-pipelines-and-of.
