Editor:
In recorded B.C. history, the worst fires and air quality have been in 2018, which scientists attribute to climate change. While Trudeau held meetings in Nanaimo under heavy smoke, environmentalists and Indigenous leaders spoke against Trudeau’s Kinder Morgan expansion to buy the pipeline for $4.5 billion (which may cost $15-20 billion).
More than 400 people were arrested resisting the expansion, many facing fines and prison time. But in a unanimous ruling on Aug. 30, the Federal Court of Appeal quashed the project. The main issues:
• Failure by Canada to properly consult First Nations.
• A flawed NEB hearing, not considering tanker traffic.
• Failure to protect southern resident orcas – under threat of extinction.
Within 30 minutes of the court ruling, Kinder Morgan shareholders voted to sell their shares for a large profit. Then, PM Trudeau bought them, intent on completing the expansion, putting Canada in a conflict of interest with First Nations consultations or an NEB process.
My documentary film on the issues was supported and screened in B.C. and Washington. But when MP Elizabeth May showed my film several times on Parliament Hill for MPs and senators, none watched it. I’ve invited MP Goldsmith-Jones to watch the film; she hasn’t attended. She and other B.C. Liberal MPs supported the expansion and purchase. Canada and Alberta spent millions on slick ads for the pipeline expansion.
I’m honoured that my film raised funds for First Nations, resulting in this historic legal victory.
This Living Salish Sea is fact-based and shows the beauty and diversity of our seas. Watch the film from the website: www.livingsalishsea.ca.
This isn’t over yet, and is less about the path taken, which we can’t influence, and more about the path ahead, which we can.
Sarama, Gibsons
