Burnaby residents and community members have been conducting a peaceful vigil on Burnaby Mountain since August to ensure that Kinder Morgan’s Mountain Pipeline geotechnical survey work will not proceed in preparation for a new TarSands bitument pipeline.
Five people have been served an injunction and a $5.6 million dollar lawsuit by Kinder Morgan. Pete McMartin from the Globe and Mail yesterday called this “Big Oil Acting as a Big Bully,” calling the lawsuit “excessive” and the protesters “martyrs.”
Both the City of Burnaby, and the City of Vancouver have voiced strong opposition to Kinder Morgan’s planned pipeline, cited polls that show widespread public disapproval.
The court hearings come days after Marc Eliesen, former head of BC-Hydro withdrew from the National Energy Board hearing on the Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMEP). calling it a “public deception.”
Meanwhile the five who were served have posted a crowd funding site that in just 3 days, has almost reached their goal of $40,000 for legal fees, displaying a ubiquitous support for this cause.
Today, over sixty five local, national, and international groups released an open letter in support of these Burnaby and Vancouver citizens. The letter is below.
Organizer are asking more labour, environmental, First Nations and other citizens groups to sign on as endorsers here to support those who have personally sacrificed for the good of local community and in an effort to avoid global climate catastrophe.
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We Stand with the Caretakers of Burnaby Mountain and Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion
Sixty-five community, environmental and labour groups issue open letter. Please add your support by filling in the short form at the bottom of this page.
We, the undersigned, express our support for those who are protecting Burnaby Mountain from Kinder Morgan geotechnical survey work.
Burnaby Mountain is public land (on unceded Indigenous territories) that is used frequently as a recreational area and is a designated Conservation Area.
The City of Burnaby and its residents have been vocal for several years against Kinder Morgan’s $5.4 billion Trans Mountain pipeline and terminal expansion proposal that would transport even more diluted bitumen and bring even more tankers to the Burrard Inlet.
Over 70% of Burnaby residents are opposed to Kinder Morgan’s expansion. (Source: http://is.gd/j79aOJ) Residents have been educating themselves through town halls, teach-ins and personal research and have determined that the risks to public safety and environmental degradation from Kinder Morgan’s proposal are too high. Many residents are no strangers to the harmful health impacts of tar sands crude given that the city was home to a terrible oil spill in 2007.
The City of Burnaby is currently in the process of appealing a National Energy Board decision that grants Kinder Morgan access to the designated Conservation Area. This is a critical constitutional question of whether a regulatory body can grant a corporation the authority to override municipal bylaws.
The Tsleil-Waututh Nation has also launched a legal challenge of Kinder Morgan’s pipeline and tankers project. This is the first legal challenge by a First Nation against the new pipeline and tanker proposal, citing the federal government’s failure to first consult Tsleil-Waututh on key decisions about the environmental assessment and regulatory review of the project.
The pipeline facilitates Tar Sands expansion on Indigenous territories along the pipeline route and at the source. This would violate numerous Aboriginal Treaty Rights and the overall well-being of these communities, many of whom have already emphatically said no to Kinder Morgan’s expansion. As the Supreme Court of Canada has consistently upheld, it is the federal government’s duty to respect these treaties, as well as the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples living on unceded lands along the pipeline route.
Therefore it should come as no surprise that community members are on Burnaby Mountain. These caretakers and residents should not be facing an injunction or a multimillion-dollar lawsuit by a corporate energy giant. Given the federal government’s failure to respond to residents, to Indigenous communities at the source of Tar Sands destruction and along the proposed pipeline route, and to municipal concerns, we laud these protectors for their bravery in taking a stand against Kinder Morgan.
Initial List of Sixty-Five Signatories:
1. Asian Youth Dialogues Collective
2. Building Bridges-Human Rights Vancouver
3. Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion
4. Café Rebelde Collective
5. Climate Convergence
6. Coalition of South Asian Women Against Violence
7. Colour Connected Against Racism (UBC)
8. Connective Project
9. Council of Canadians
10. Defenders of the Land
11. Delusions of Development
12. Dogwood Initiative
13. Forest Action Network
14. ForestEthics Advocacy
15. Georgia Strait Alliance
16. Global Queer Research Group, UBC
17. Greenpeace
18. Heartwood Community Cafe
19. Idle No More
20. Latinos in Action
21. Lead Now
22. Left Front
23. Living Oceans Society
24. LopezNOCOALition
25. Mainlander
26. Mexicans Living in Vancouver
27. Mi’kmaq Warrior Society
28. Mining Justice Alliance
29. Missourians Organizing for Reform & Empowerment
30. Native Youth Movement
31. No One Is Illegal-Vancouver Coast Salish Territories
32. Peace Alliance of Surrey
33. PIPE UP Network
34. Pivot Legal Society
35. Portland Rising Tide
36. RAGA Graduate and Undergraduate Student Network
37. Rising Tide North America
38. Rising Tide – Coast Salish Territories
39. Rococode
40. Root Force
41. San Juans Alliance
42. San Juan Islanders for Safe Shipping
43. Sanctuary Health
44. Save Our Shores Gabriola
45. Secwepemc Womens Warrior Society
46. Shit Harper Did
47. Sierra Club BC
48. Social Housing Alliance
49. South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy
50. Streams of Justice
51. System Change Not Climate Change
52. Toronto350 dot org
53. Trikone Vancouver
54. Unifor
55. Union of BC Indian Chiefs
56. Unist’ot’en Camp
57. Vancouver Ecosocialists
58. Vancouver Status of Women
59. WaterWealth Project
60. We Love this Coast
61. WildCoast dot ca
62. Wilderness Committee
63. Wild Idaho Rising Tide
64. Wildlife Defence League
65. 350 dot org
Additional signatories (rolling basis):
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Friends of the Earth International
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Beyond Boarding
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T. Buck Suzuki Environmental Foundation
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Simon Fraser Public Interest Research Group
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UFAWU-Unifor (United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union)
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Gabriola S-O-S
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March Against Monsanto – Victoria, BC
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Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society
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Friends of Lily Lake
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Wildsight
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Voters Taking Action on Climate Change
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Council of Canadians Windsor Essex Chapter
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Green Shelters Corporation
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Project Pipeline dot org
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Friends of the San Juans
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FORPA Forest Protection Allies
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Social & Environmental Justice Committee of Vancouver Quaker Meeting
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SWATT Smart Women Against Traffic Team
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Clayoquot Action
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SAFE (Students Active for the Environment – Kwantlen)
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Social Justice Committee of the Unitarian Church of Vancouver
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Chaos Faerie
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Raincoast Conservation Foundation
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Global Compliance Research Project
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Greenpeace – Victoria
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Polaris Institute
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System Change Not Climate Change-Dallas/Fort Worth
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UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
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SMART CHANGE (Vancouver – Victoria)
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Marineland Animal Defense
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Vancouver Community Laboratory
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Graphic History Collective
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Rainforest Action Network
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SFU350
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Talon – UBC
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How we Roll Longboards
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Canada Waking Up the Masses
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DaDaBaBy Enterprises
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Double G
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The Bunny Alliance
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Council of Canadians – South Niagara Chapter
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Simon Fraser Student Society
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Force of Nature Alliance
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Critical Criminology Working Group
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Radical Access Mapping Project
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ActCity Ottawa
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Communities and Coal
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Real Hearings
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Finavera Wind Energy Inc.
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Head Tax Families Society of Canada
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Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice
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Sunshine Coast Alliance for Democracy
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Rising Tide Seattle
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Dave Ivaz Music
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UBC Social Justice Centre
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Kwantlen Public Interest Research Group
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Climate & Capitalism
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Ottawa Ecosocialists
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Freedom Farmers
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Amnesty International UBC
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David Suzuki Foundation
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Indigenous Action Movement- Unceded Salish Territories
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Access Natural Healing Centre
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RE Sources for Sustainable Communities, Bellingham
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Salish Coast LIVE!
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Purple Thistle
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Vancouver Aerial Photography
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The Bloom Series
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Searcy (AR) Parks & Recreation
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Silent Angels
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West Coast Native News
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Friends of the San Juans
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Oil Change International
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Global Exchange
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World Team Now
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Citizens for Sanity dot com
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Mother Earth Action Co-operative Ltd.
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350 Vermont
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Rising Tide Toronto
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Awareness Film Night
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Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE)
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Socialist Alternative Vancouver
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Vancouver Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
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Renew Kalamazoo
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Deep Green Resistance
- Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands
