Photo by Benjamin West
The Canadian Press reports, “The federal government will announce its much-anticipated decision on the Northern Gateway pipeline after markets close on Tuesday.” The Toronto Stock Exchange closes at 4 pm EDT, so we expect the Harper government to announce its decision around 1 pm PDT.
The Council of Canadians will be releasing a media statement immediately following the announcement with comments from chairperson Maude Barlow and our BC-Yukon organizer Leila Darwish.
The Harper government has three options:
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Reject the pipeline. -
Delay a decision by sending it back to the National Energy Board for further consideration. -
Approve the pipeline.
It is expected that the Harper government will choose to approve the pipeline.
Whatever the decision, there will be rallies in Vancouver (at 5:30 pm PDT) and Victoria (at 7 pm PDT). Speakers at the Vancouver rally will include Council of Canadians organizer Brigette DePape, Grand Chief Stewart Philip and Cecilia Point of the Musqueam Nation.
And West Coast Native News reports, “The women of the Gitga’at First Nation will lead a symbolic blockade against the Northern Gateway pipeline on June 20, by stretching a crochet ‘Chain of Hope’ across Douglas Channel to show their deep opposition to oil tankers and oil spills in BC’s narrow coastal waters. Made of multicolour yarn and decorated with family keepsakes and mementos including baby pictures and fishing floats with written messages on them, the chain will stretch from Hawkesbury Island to Hartley Bay, a distance of 11,544 feet. …Gitga’at territory encompasses approximately 7,500 square kilometres of land and water, including a major portion of Douglas Channel, which is the proposed route oil tankers would have to travel to get to and from Kitimat.” To join the Chain of Hope please see their website and Facebook page.
To read about further steps beyond today, please see Five strategies to stop the Northern Gateway pipeline from being built.
Notably, Unifor has just announced that it will be supporting the strategy to have a referendum in BC on the pipeline. Unifor president Jerry Dias says, “Northern Gateway ignores the reality of climate change, offers few long-term jobs, and doesn’t address First Nations’ concerns.” The petition, signed by 153,238 British Columbians so far, says, “I pledge to support a citizens’ initiative to give British Columbians the chance to vote on plans to expand pipelines and oil tanker traffic on our coast.”
