Climate and Energy

When Enbridge recently held its annual meeting of shareholders in Calgary, the company and the city’s business sector received a powerful message about the obstacles in the way of expanding tar sands pipelines to the Pacific coast. First Nations from BC, Alberta and Manitoba gathered together to express their firm conviction, to federal and provincial governments, and to the oil industry, that oil developments and pipelines must not be built on the traditional territories of First Nations without their consent.

December 1^st marked a turning point in the effort to protect the Pacific coast and the watersheds that we all depend on from the threat of oil spills. For the first time, First Nations from the north coast, the south coast, and the Interior gathered together to declare, in solidarity, that tar sands pipeline and tanker projects are banned in their respective territories.

In the past two weeks, I embarked on something of a radical carbon offset program as one part of the growing mass movement to stop the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain expansion. In the process we will slow the expansion of the Alberta Tar Sands, which we now know needs to remain largely in the ground if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change.

On the morning of October 27, I was excited not to have to go into the office, but not for the reasons one might think.  As an articled student for WCEL, I look forward to going to the office because everyone there is so inspirational and the work they do seems so worthwhile, I am thankful just to be a part of it all.  This day was not any different except I had a change of venue. 

This is your friend Eugene, blogging from 9,753 metres in the sky.

I’m writing on my way home after a full and intense week. According to the map, we are above Treaty 1 territory, somewhere between Winnipeg and Brandon, MB. A Tribe Called Red’s incredible new album, We Are the Halluci Nation, is blasting in my ear.

The 10 day Water Festival hosted by The Lummi Nation of Washington State wrapped up on June 22nd. I had the opportunity to attend part of the festival, along with another law student volunteer and WCEL Staff Lawyer, Eugene Kung. The part we were present for was the Stommish Sacred Summit, which consisted of a day of presentations on the topic of Sacred Obligations, a talk by Winona LaDuke, and a rally against a proposed coal port in the Salish Sea. These events hold great relevance for the environmental movement and the fight against fossil fuel projects in Canada.

“OK, everyone pull in to the next gas station. Bathroom break, eh.”  The voice on over the walkie talkie crackled.

Mug shot: One of the gifts from the potlatch – “Raven Always Sets Things Right”

Yo ho wee
Yo ha wee yo wee yah
Hey hi yo
Ha wee ah wee yah wee yah
Hey hi yo ha wee
Ah wee ah-ha
Ah wee-ee ah wee yah

Getting to the Tar Sands

June 28, 2014 marked the 5th and final Tar Sands Healing Walk, a grassroots event organized by local Indigenous communities in the heart of the tar sands development. This was not a protest or a march, nor was it about disrupting the work of the energy companies; it was about the people and their land and maintaining the ecological and spiritual connection to it. As Cleo Reece of Fort McMurray First Nation explained, “this walk is not just for the people, it is also for the eagles, and the bears, and the water.”

West Coast Environmental Law recently submitted our recommendations on improving BC’s carbon tax to the BC Carbon Tax Review Committee, including recommendations to make the application of the tax more comprehensive, and on October 18th I’ll be making a similar presentation to the BC Budget Consultations in Victoria.