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Watch this presentation by Damien Gillis, co-director of Fractured Land - a documentary in production which examines the industrialization of northern Canada through the eyes of a young indigenous man named Caleb Behn - at the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival.
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How much is our wild salmon worth? What price on our rivers and the ecologies they sustain? Is there any financial arrangement that will compensate for the loss of our coastal fauna and flora as well as the people who, for centuries, have been sustained by those resources? Incidentally, a recent UBC study found that a single oil spill from tankers on BC's coast could wipe out all the economic gains of the Enbridge pipeline...There is this notion that we must continue to “progress”, which is code for "money talks and when it does one should bow down in grateful obeisance to the god Mammon and forever hold our tongues." I reject that notion. We can progress and prosper without placing our entire outdoors at the certain risk of destruction.

In a move that could cost him significant political support, federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair has endorsed controversial west-to-east pipeline proposals that would move tar sands crude from Alberta through Ontario and Quebec to Atlantic Canada and points beyond...But according to Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan, “The bottom line is Alberta is selling the wrong product [dilbit]. The glut of bitumen on the market is a result of bitumen looking for appropriate refineries. If the product was SCO [synthetic crude oil], we could be selling the product to any refinery in North America.” As well, many pipeline safety issues could be avoided.

Read this story from the Vancouver Sun on Enbridge's unprecedented access to the Departmen tof Fisheries and Oceans, including their own dedicated internal staff dedicated to the company's project. (Nov. 10, 2012)

Enbridge Inc.'s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline project is getting special attention from the federal Fisheries department, according to an internal email obtained by The Vancouver Sun.

In what critics call an unprecedented step, the department has listed a "Northern Gateway Liaison" at a top level of its organizational chart, under a reorganization prompted by the 2012 budget's sweeping Fisheries Act amendments.

The position will report directly to the executive director of the National Ecosystems Management Branch at the department's headquarters.

"This suggests an unprecedented level of access and engagement for a specific project," said Green party leader Elizabeth May, who in the 1980s was a senior adviser to a federal environment minister.

"This is the reality of a government that has told the bureaucracy, 'be prepared to make sure this project goes through.' " B.C. NDP MP Fin Donnelly, his party's deputy fisheries critic, said he's never heard of a company getting such special treatment.

"This clearly exposes the Harper Conservative oil pipeline agenda. They are putting the oil industry ahead of fishing, tourism and all other industries."

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/shows%2BFisheries%2Bfocus%2BGateway/7530065/story.html

Enbridge Inc.'s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline project is getting special attention from the federal Fisheries department, according to an internal email obtained by The Vancouver Sun.

In what critics call an unprecedented step, the department has listed a "Northern Gateway Liaison" at a top level of its organizational chart, under a reorganization prompted by the 2012 budget's sweeping Fisheries Act amendments.

The position will report directly to the executive director of the National Ecosystems Management Branch at the department's headquarters.

"This suggests an unprecedented level of access and engagement for a specific project," said Green party leader Elizabeth May, who in the 1980s was a senior adviser to a federal environment minister.

"This is the reality of a government that has told the bureaucracy, 'be prepared to make sure this project goes through.' " B.C. NDP MP Fin Donnelly, his party's deputy fisheries critic, said he's never heard of a company getting such special treatment.

"This clearly exposes the Harper Conservative oil pipeline agenda. They are putting the oil industry ahead of fishing, tourism and all other industries."



Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/shows%2BFisheries%2Bfocus%2BGateway/7530065/story.html#ixzz2CgybCRus

Not long after the Defend Our Coast rallies, a pollster phones, wanting to know whom I plan to vote for in the provincial election. The first party to unequivocally say NO to tar sands oil in pipelines and tankers through BC land and waters, I tell her. This causes a bit of confusion, as it clearly isn’t one of the options in front of the caller. So, she asks after some hesitation, the NDP? Given NDP leader Adrian Dix’s tough talk on Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline, she might very well think so, but where is he on doubling the capacity of the Kinder Morgan pipeline into Burrard Inlet? The silence is deafening.

Mark Hume Nails Enbridge on Caribou Paper Cheat

Written by Rafe Mair - Wednesday, 14 November 2012
When a clock strikes 13, you can never trust it again. So it must be for anyone who lies about information he is using to back up a serious scientific statement upon which a great deal is at stake. Mark Hume had an article in Sunday’s Globe and Mail BC Edition which, in a world of decent journalism, would be a headline story, titled ENBRIDGE CHEATS ON SCIENTIFIC PAPER ON THREAT TO CARIBOU...Enbridge clearly didn’t expect anyone to challenge their work and hung their hat on a scientific paper that simply did not exist.

The Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival is hosting a multi-media discussion of "Canada's Carbon Corridor" this week at North Vancouver's Centennial Theatre. The event's title refers to the interconnected web of major oil, gas, coal, mining and hydroelectric projects proposed and in development across northern BC and Alberta, and the Harper and Clark governments' grand plan to export these resources to new markets in Asia. My presentation - one of six on the program - will retrace a recent two and a half week filming journey across the Carbon Corridor for my forthcoming film, "Fractured Land".

Watch this powerhouse speech from Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union at the Defend Our Coast rally in Victoria explaining why his members are "diametrically opposed" to Tar Sands pipelines to BC's coast.
Published in Video

Council of Canadians Chair Maude Barlow and 350.org founder Bill McKibben will lead a discussion about oil and gas pipelines and tankers in Burnaby this Thursday evening. The event is the second stop in a seven-city tour discussing a range of oil and gas pipeline proposals and associated tanker traffic, plus the Alberta Tar Sands, natural gas fracking in northeast BC and proposed Liquified Natural Gas terminals on BC's coast - all of which Barlow referred to as part of the "carbon corridor" in her speech at the Defend Our Coast event earlier this week.

Check out this video from Global TV on yesterday's "Defend Our Coast" rally at the Legislature in Victoria, which drew thousands to voice their opposition to oil pipelines and tankers in BC's waters. (Oct. 22, 2012)

A giant black banner, measuring 235 metres, encircles the grounds of the B.C. Legislature in Victoria Monday afternoon. It symbolizes the size of a Aframax super tanker off B.C.'s coast, and took hundreds of people to carry it around the lawn.

An estimated crowd of 2500 is in Victoria on Monday at the 'Defend Our Coast' rally and sit-in against the proposed Enbridge and Kinder Morgan pipelines.

"Thank you regular people of British Columbia for standing with us because it is through your efforts that we are winning this fight," says Chief Jackie Thomas with the Saik'uz First Nation.

People from all over the province and from all walks of life are lending their support to the cause.

An 11 year old Saltspring Island resident at the rally says, “A lot of animals will die and [it] will destroy all the nature,"

The crowd was revived by songs and chants such as "No Enbridge, No Kinder Morgan."

"Looking at this diverse and beautiful crowd I'm just filled with inspiration," says Clayton Thomas-Muller of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation.

"We know they're never going to build these pipelines and they're never going to bring these tankers in."


  • Eco-Footprint Founder Dr. Bill Rees on Resources, the 7 Billion and You

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  • Paul Simon Lends Song to Coastal First Nations' Anti-Tanker Video

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    Read more...
  • Kinder Morgan Vancouver Pipeline, Tanker Debate

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