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Court overturn of Enbridge continues pushback against colonial resource extraction: By Natalie Knight

volc8no July 6, 2016     Climate & Ecology, Indigenous & Colonialism, Newsletter posts

Editorial Cartoon, Globe and Mail, June 2, 2014

Editorial Cartoon, Globe and Mail, June 2, 2014

On June 30, 2016, Canada’s Federal Court of Appeals decision to overturn the government’s approval of the Northern Gateway pipeline project was made public. A week earlier, on June 23, two of three judges struck down a previous approval of the project, citing insufficient consultation with eight First Nations who are in the direct route of the pipeline. This is a major victory for First Nations within the colonial court system.

The Enbridge Northern Gateway project was initially approved in 2014 by the National Energy Board and the Harper government. Enbridge was given 209 conditions to meet in order to implement the pipeline project, including consultation with impacted First Nations communities. If built, the pipeline would connect the Alberta Tar Sands to British Columbia’s north coast, stretching 1,177 kilometers from Bruderheim, just north of Edmonton, to Kitimat. It would also require a parallel pipeline to flow in the opposite direction, from Kitimat to Bruderheim, to send a thinning agent to prepare the bitumen for shipment. Once in Kitimat, the bitumen would be shipped to international markets.

Eight First Nations, four environmental groups, and the labour union Unifor brought the appeal of the Northern Gateway project to the Federal Court of Appeals in October, 2015. The First Nations included in the legal challenge were: Haida Nation, Gitxaala Nation, Gitga’at First Nation, Haisla Nation, Heiltsuk Nation, Kitasoo Xai’Xais Nation, Nadleh Whut’en, and Nak’azdli Whut’en. And the four environmentalist groups included B.C. Nature, Raincoast Conservation Foundation, ForestEthics Advocacy, and Living Oceans Society.

The overturn of the Northern Gateway approval could act as a precedent for other struggles against natural resource extraction and pipelines, like Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion, which would increase the amount of bitumen piped from the Tar Sands to Burnaby, B.C. by 300%. The National Energy Board approved Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion in May, 2016 with 157 conditions required, much like the conditions attached to the Northern Gateway Project.

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1 Comment

  1. July 4 – July 10, 2016 Volcano Newsletter
    ― July 6, 2016 - 8:56 pm  Reply

    […] Court overturn of Enbridge continues pushback against colonial resource extraction […]

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Sad Siren Song: By Tracey Morrison

― February 12, 2017

Community Spotlight: Jean Swanson

For our issue on the BC Liberal legacy, Volcano editors turned to our Community Spotlight on a legacy of our own to highlight her over 40 years of anti-poverty work. Jean Swanson is an editor with The Volcano alongside her work with the Carnegie Community Action Project. She previously worked with the Downtown Eastside Residents’ Association (DERA) and is the author of a book titled Poorbashing: The Politics of Exclusion.

You’ve been active in anti-poverty work for a long time. What has been the biggest realization that you have had with regards to poverty in this province? Has your understanding or approach to government changed over time and through experience?

My approach to government has definitely changed. Back in 1979, I actually ran as an NDP MLA candidate because I thought being involved in electoral politics was a way of implementing the things you’ve been fighting for in the community. I ran with COPE for city council too, along with my co-workers Bruce Eriksen and Libby Davies, who were elected. In those days it seemed possible to get city council to do some good things for the Downtown Eastside if we worked hard at it: fund the Carnegie Centre, pass a Standards of Maintenance bylaw, put sprinklers in the hotels.

In the early 90s, after the NDP cut welfare and brought in a whole poorbashing framework to justify it, I couldn’t bring myself to vote at all, let alone run for office.

Read more about Jean Swanson's commitment to anti-poverty organizing here.

The Volcano is published on traditional, ancestral, and unceded Coast Salish Territories.

Alliance Against Displacement: The Volcano is affiliated with the Alliance Against Displacement, a pan-regional anti-displacement network of local communities, organizations, and activists fighting displacement on the ground.

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