From Standing Rock to Burnaby Mountain

Leadnow invites you to a free public event to hear about the growing, continent-wide opposition to new pipelines like the Kinder Morgan and Dakota Access Pipelines.

Thurs. Nov. 17th, 7:00-9:00pm (doors at 6:30)
SFU Harbour Centre (515 W Hastings St)
(see childcare details below)

Canada’s federal government could approve the Kinder Morgan pipeline before the end of the year. In both the United States and Canada, the Dakota Access Pipeline faces fierce resistance from Indigenous communities defending land, water, and sacred sites.

Can direct action stop these new pipelines? How will fossil fuel companies and governments respond? Join us for a discussion with Indigenous and community leaders about the implications of direct action on stopping new fossil fuel infrastructure.

## Confirmed Speakers:

Tara Houska is Ojibwe from the Couchiching First Nation has been involved with the resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline in Standing Rock. She is a tribal attorney and National Campaigns Director for Honor the Earth. In February 2016, Houska was appointed Native American advisor to Bernie Sanders’ campaign for President. Her work is raising the profile of important issues, like the impact of fossil fuel extraction on women, their children and communities and the treatment of Indigenous people by private companies and police.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip is the President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, an organization of First Nations that works toward the “implementation, exercise, and recognition” of Aboriginal Rights and Title and the protection of land and water. The Grand Chief was arrested by the RCMP, along with more than a hundred others, during the 2014 Burnaby Mountain encampment opposing the Kinder Morgan pipeline.

## About the Kinder Morgan Pipeline
Kinder Morgan plans to make the Burrard Inlet a major tar sands export terminal by building new facilities including a pipeline and fuel tanks. The changes will add seven times as many tankers per month to Vancouver’s narrow harbour, increasing the likelihood of a dangerous spill of irrecoverable diluted tar sands bitumen. More than 50 Indigenous nations across North America have signed the Treaty Alliance pledging to block all proposed pipeline and tanker projects affecting First Nations’ land and water, including the Kinder Morgan plan. In December, the federal government will make a decision about whether to approve or reject this proposal.

## About the Dakota Access Pipeline
If completed, the US$3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline would carry about 470,000 barrels of crude oil per day from the low-quality, high-cost Bakken oilfields to Illinois. In the largest gathering of First Nations in modern American history, Indigenous peoples have set up a defenders’ camp on land belonging to the US Army Corps of Engineers in North Dakota.

In September, private security attacked Indigenous peoples with dogs, sound cannons, and pepper spray at an encampment defending the Standing Rock Sioux tribal burial site. In September, the Obama administration ordered a stop to all pipeline construction on US Army Corp land and called for a “voluntary pause” on all construction activity. Nationwide solidarity actions have mobilized to compel President Obama to revoke the pipeline’s permits.

This event takes place on the traditional, unceded, occupied territories of the səlil̓wətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.

We are working on making childcare available at this event. Please send an e-mail to rachel@leadnow.ca if this is something you require. Thanks!