First Nation leaders geared up Friday for a major weekend protest expected to attract thousands of protesters of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
“Put your remote down and your Game Boys,” Tsleil-Waututh elder Amy George told a Vancouver news conference. “It’s time to warrior up. I’m asking you all to come with your drums and make a lot of noise and show that we really mean it.”
She decried the “arrogance” of Kinder Morgan for pushing ahead with such a project in her peoples’ back yard and for even saying where people can kayak.
George also emphasized that the fight is not just among First Nations, but should include all citizens of the Lower Mainland who stand to be impacted by an oil spill associated with increased tanker traffic.
“We’re the voice for those who cannot speak,” she said, referring to the long-lasting environmental impact of a spill on fish and wildlife.
The pollster Insights West on Friday reported a deep public divide on the Trans Mountain project. Women and British Columbians aged 18 to 34 are most likely to oppose the project, whereas men and British Columbians over the age of 55 are most likely to support it.
In Metro Vancouver, there is a statistical tie: 45 per cent in support, 47 per cent in opposition. The highest level of opposition is on Vancouver Island, at 53 per cent.
Kanahus Manuel poses for a photo near Chase, B.C., in this September 6 handout photo. Members of the Secwepemc Nation in British Columbia say they are building the first of 10 tiny homes that will be placed directly in the path of Kinder Morgan’s $7.4-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.Kanahus Manuel of the Secwepemc Women’s Warrior Society says the house is a symbol of sustainability in the face of an environmentally damaging project and is based on homes built at the Standing Rock protest in the United States.
Dustin Rivers, a councillor with the Squamish First Nation, said his people are extremely disappointed with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for making an election promise to improve the federal environmental assessment process then approving the Trans Mountain expansion anyways.
“We cannot sit by idly and let this project go, with the way it will threaten our livelihood, our lives, our territory, our waters and our culture,” he said. “This pipeline does not need to be built.”
Rivers said no one believes that the government or industry can clean up an oil spill, adding “the risk is so high we have to think of our future generations and the impact of this on them.”
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Kanahus Manuel of the Secwepemc First Nation in eastern B.C. has been repeatedly arrested for protesting the Trans Mountain pipeline. She said 10 “tiny houses” would be placed along the pipeline route through her peoples’ territory “to assert our Indigenous sovereignty, our jurisdiction and our title to our territory.”
Longtime Haida leader Guujaaw agreed that all British Columbians and Canada must work together to take on Kinder Morgan, which he described as part of a corporate world order.
“You can’t leave it to Indigenous people alone to do this,” he said. “We know the fearful future if we don’t do something.”
A Kinder Morgan spokesperson said “Trans Mountain supports the right to peaceful and lawful expressions of opinions and understand not everyone agrees with the project.”
The protest rally and march begins Saturday at 10:45 a.m. at the Lake City Way SkyTrain station in Burnaby.