Canada is divided over a pipeline. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government has
purchased a pipeline project from Texas-based energy giant Kinder Morgan. The
Trans Mountain pipeline, which will pump oil from the Alberta tar sands to the
Pacific Coast, is costing Canadian taxpayers $7.4 billion.
And opposition has been massive.
These protesters have taken over one of the busiest intersections in Vancouver
to call for a stop to this pipeline.
Activists have taken dramatic steps to resist this pipeline. Now, a Canadian
court has halted construction because the government didn't properly consult
Indigenous groups. But for many other Canadians, the pipeline means one thing: jobs.
Does it make you sad you have to collaborate with a big oil company?
Not at all.
How far are you willing to go to stop this pipeline?
It's in my blood not to stop.
Trudeau has repeatedly positioned himself as a climate leader
and a friend to Indigenous people.
Protecting our environment and growing our economy are not opposing values.
No means no, Justin!
Why are you guys still here?
Because this is unceded land.
So we're at a berry farm in a town called Delta in British Columbia, and we got
tipped off that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is here for an event.
It's the leader of the Liberal Party himself.
Hello everyone! How are you doing?
No means no, Justin! This is unceded
traditional territory! You're not welcome here!
So thank you very much! I’m counting on all of you for your help! Thank you everyone!
We're trying to get closer to ask the Prime Minister a question but there's a huge crowd.
This is an impossible situation. Prime Minister Trudeau!
British Columbia has become the epicenter of the anti-pipeline movement. Protesters have set up
resistance camps near Kinder Morgan construction sites. It's not the first time we've seen this kind of tactic.
The police are right behind us! We want to make sure we get out of here.
In 2016, water protectors at Standing Rock
successfully delayed construction of the Dakota Access pipeline for months. It
looked like the #NoDAPL movement would succeed. But President Trump
cleared the way for the pipeline after taking office. Now, the focus has shifted
north. In 2013, Kinder Morgan announced plans to build a twin pipeline next to
an existing one, in order to triple the flow of oil through Canada. The backlash
was immediate. After several lawsuits, Kinder Morgan threatened to walk away –
unless Trudeau guaranteed a path to construction. In a widely criticized deal,
Trudeau's government purchased the pipeline for $3.5 billion,
promising it would boost the economy and allow Canada's landlocked oil to be sold
to foreign markets. For many, it was a slap in the face.
Climate leaders don’t buy or expand pipelines.
If it’s completed, Canada will increase emissions,
a major step backwards for the Paris climate agreement. But tar sands
extraction actually produces more greenhouse gas emissions than
conventional drilling does.
So we're headed to see the main construction site of the Kinder Morgan
pipeline here in British Columbia. And because there's so much security
surrounding it, really the only way to get to it is by water. William George of
the Tsleil-Waututh Nation is the leader of the Coast Salish resistance here in British Columbia.
How do you feel when you look over there and you see how much
security there is and how much construction there looks to be?
There's a lot of emotions tied into it. You see the big crane there? From what I understand,
they're pile-driving in big steel structures, getting ready for these super-
tankers. So there'll be essentially, I think, four docks, docking base for these
super-tankers to come in and then take over, I guess, 890,000
barrels of bitumen. And the thing with bitumen that not a lot of
people are aware of is that it doesn't float. It sinks to the bottom, you can't recover
it at all. Again, just another reason why this is unacceptable and we
won't allow it to travel through our bodies of water.
Have you ever gotten in trouble for getting this close?
No. I'm not allowed within 100 meters in any compound, though.
Why?
There's a bridge right there,
so me and a team, we hung off there for 38 hours. We stopped an oil tanker from leaving here for two days.
This coastline could see 21,000 oil tankers over the
next 50 years. More tankers means more noise,
which scientists say poses grave risks for endangered mammals.
How has Kinder Morgan's presence affected the ecosystem here?
Well, right now we have a mother orca that's
swimming around for over a week, and she's pushing around her dead calf, and
it's really uncommon for them to do that. So in a way that they, are telling
us something. These are super-tankers that are the size
of the Empire State Building. Just that noise pollution in the water alone will
ultimately put to extinction those orca whales.
Days before the government announced it was buying the pipeline, the federal Fisheries and Oceans
Department sent a letter warning Kinder Morgan it could face prosecution for putting
marine life in danger near an oil terminal in Vancouver. The company had
gone months without filing mandatory monitoring reports.
Your prime minister, Trudeau, came to office and positioned himself as an ally to Indigenous folks,
and as a friend of the environment. And yet he's gone ahead and purchased this
pipeline. What do you think about that?
Well, unfortunately I voted for the bugger, but him lying to us is upsetting in so many ways, when he promised to
protect our Indigenous rights, promised to be a climate leader, and he's doing nothing
about it – absolutely just the opposite, really.
Would you vote for him again?
No.
Just looking around and being on this water, it's stunning. It's one of the prettiest things I've ever seen.
Yeah, and I'm gonna make sure it stays that way, absolutely.
Just outside Vancouver in Burnaby, protesters have set up two different
resistance camps, Watch House and Camp Cloud. Watch House is operated by the Tsleil-Waututh Nation.
We're taking it back to our old culture, our old teachings. We'd
have watch house locations and strategic ... you know, to watch out for the enemy,
centuries ago. Ultimately we do see Kinder Morgan as the enemy.
In 2007, Canada endorsed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It
specifies that states and organizations must adhere to what's referred to as
“Free, Prior and Informed Consent.” While Kinder Morgan says it communicated with
more than 133 Indigenous groups along the pipeline route, several First Nations
communities say they weren't properly consulted.
It's devastating in every single way. This pipeline has got to go.
Reginald Gillins Jr. is an activist from Seattle who lives at Watch House.
How big is this anti-pipeline movement?
Oh, it's massive. It's massive. You see this happening all over the globe.
Disenfranchised communities are the first to be affected by the effects of
climate change and extraction efforts on Mother Earth.
Camp cloud is stationed right across the street from Kinder Morgan. Days before our arrival, the camp
was served with an eviction notice. Black Wolf is from the Kwakiutl nation. He's
been staying here for the past six months.
You guys got served with an eviction notice not long ago.
Yes, we did.
So if the city served you with an eviction notice, why are you guys still here?
Because this is unceded land. We're federal Indians. It means we don't have to listen to
the provincial levels of law. We're higher up than they are. We've had this law put
in since the early 1800s. This is our rights as natives to be here.
We're not even protesters – we're water protectors, land defenders. That's what we like to be called.
Why is this fight personal?
It's our food chain. We rely on all the salmon that are coming and going from here.
It’s going through all the natural watersheds that we have here.
What do you think of Justin Trudeau's attempts at reconciliation between Canada and First Nations?
I think it was just ludicrous. There is no reconciliation going on. There's so much
devastation to all First Nations all around BC, it's not even funny. Let alone
before this even happened, 50% of our Native reserves still do not have
drinking water. This is just not right.
Camp Cloud's occupants run what they call surveillance operations to monitor Kinder Morgan's activities
and educate the public about the pipeline. This summer, the Federal Court of Appeals
delivered a major blow to the project, unanimously ruling the Trudeau
administration violated Canadian law when it failed to properly consult
Indigenous groups along the pipeline route, and that it did not consider all
the evidence regarding harm to the environment.
Our government inherited a flawed environmental review process, and we’ve made efforts to improve it.
Now, the government must restart talks with First Nations before construction can proceed.
This is Canada’s most active port. Hundreds of ships pass through here
every day. Years ago, you'd see even larger ships in the water – that is, until
the Exxon Valdez oil spill. In 1989, an Exxon Valdez oil tanker bound for
southern California struck a reef in Alaska, releasing 44,000 tons of oil. It's
considered one of the worst human-caused environmental disasters in modern
history. As a precaution, Canada placed more regulations on the oil industry. In
2016, the City of Vancouver submitted a report to the National Energy Board,
claiming the risk of a spill along the Trans Mountain pipeline route is between
16% and 67%. They argued this could cost the economy hundreds of millions of
dollars and result in the deaths of 100,000 sea and shorebirds. Carl and Ann
have lived in Burnaby for years. They're opposed to the expansion because they
say it'll bring devastating effects to their community.
I was driving home one night and I started coughing really violently.
My car hit the curb, I thought I was going to go off the road. I was madly
looking around to see if there was a place to pull over – there wasn't, so I
remained going up the mountain. And I saw the tank farm and I thought, well, it must be
fumes from the tank farm. Then this happened three more times.
When this was built, nobody lived down this mountain. Now, there's residential areas all around
here, down here, and over here.
Would you say most residents of this city oppose Kinder Morgan's expansion?
75%.
Chief Ernie Crey of Cheam First Nation is in
favor of the pipeline and says his community will directly benefit from its construction.
Are the members of your nation in support as well, or is there opposition?
There is opposition in my community. Surprise. There are some people that are opposed to it.
For us, it means jobs, money, opportunities and a better
lifestyle, from this time forward, well, well, well into the future.
We didn't really get much advantage from the earlier pipeline, but we will from the
new pipeline, because we support it, and we also have an agreement with the
company, Kinder Morgan, that offers us a cash component. And I can't disclose how
much money is involved. That's part of the agreement.
We've been hearing a lot of different numbers about the jobs that will benefit your community.
Do you have an exact number?
Well, I think overall there will be thousands of jobs along the full extent of the pipeline.
So there's nothing exact and guaranteed?
No, I don't think so. The real jobs will come when we take
what we earn from the pipeline, drive it back into our own band-owned businesses,
and businesses owned by our community members, and a lot of jobs will accrue.
Does it make you sad that in order to lift your community out of poverty, and
give them jobs and better benefits, you to collaborate with a big oil company?
Not at all. Canadians have benefited from the
natural resources, including gas and oil, all these many decades, and found a very
good lifestyle for themselves, split-level homes, two-car garages,
sending their children off to university, enjoying the good life. For now, the short-
term goal for me is to improve the economic and social standing of my
community, and make them players in the economy, not people shunted over to the
periphery, out of the mainstream, out of sight, out of mind.
We're not going back there, folks, is what I tell white people, and others. We're not going back there.
But we're not just talking about white people. There are several Indigenous communities
who are vehemently opposed to this pipeline being built. What do you say to that?
I say that I understand their opposition. To me, it's worth the risk.
Do you feel that Kinder Morgan bought off your community?
No. Cheam is not the pushover community.
We're the tough men and women, and we've showed it repeatedly, down through the decades.
Back in Vancouver, resistance is building.
These protesters have taken over one of the busiest
intersections in Vancouver to call for a stop to this pipeline.
The day of the protest, Kinder Morgan announced that the pipeline will
cost billions more than initially estimated.
We're out here because we want to send a really loud, really clear
message to the Canadian government that we're not going to allow the pipeline to
be built. And the people are still committed to stopping it, no matter how
many billions of dollars they try and spend on it.
Thomas Davies is a member of Climate Convergence, a grassroots organization
dedicated to fighting for climate justice.
What's the significance of being around all these banks?
Well we just want to interact with as much of the public
as possible. The banks are big funders of the tar sands in Alberta. And
specifically, the Kinder Morgan pipeline – before it was bought by the government –
was financed primarily by big Canadian banks for hundreds of millions of dollars.
Days after we filmed at Camp Cloud, Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Gomery
granted the city of Burnaby an injunction, ordering all camp structures
to be removed from outside the Kinder Morgan tank farm within 48 hours. The
morning of August 16th, Camp Cloud was evicted.
The Kinder Morgan protest camp on Burnaby Mountain known as Camp Cloud is coming down.
11 people were removed, and five were arrested. The injunction cited the camp’s refusal to
put out the sacred fire. Camp Cloud says even though the camp is dispersed,
they'll continue to monitor Kinder Morgan's activities and resist further
colonization of their land. Both Kinder Morgan and Prime Minister
Trudeau declined to speak with us on camera. Energy and Indigenous sovereignty
are going to be key issues heading into the 2019 election. Trudeau still owns the
Trans Mountain pipeline, and the government is determined to see the
expansion through. But for those who put their bodies on the line to stop it, this is just the beginning.
How far are you willing to go to stop this pipeline?
It's in my blood not to stop. I will remain that warrior for my people.
Do you think you’ll succeed?
Absolutely. You're going up against your own government,
and I'm just one person with a lot of supporters. So I really do hope and pray that I do succeed.
Hey guys, it's Dena, and that's what's going on with the Kinder Morgan pipeline
here in Canada. Come back next week for another Direct From episode on the
epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women also here in Canada.
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