Stop the Flows Dispatch No.1
Oil Getaway
The oil industry is a dirty business.
The governor of Montana is expected to detour the damaged
to areas today of that oil spill.
One of the great western rivers now stained in oil.
A Calhoun county river rushing with a sheen of oil tonight.
People still haven´t forgotten the disastrous
BP oil spill of the gulf coast of the US in 2010.
But tanker accidents and pipeline raptures happen frequently
and spill thousands of liters of oil to densely populated areas,
rivers and natural environments.
So it´s no wonder why people are coming together
to opose megaprojects that will bring oil and gas infrastructure to their communities.
Others see a position to these oil freeways
as a way to show us solidarity with communities fighting industrial expansion.
The main reason we oppose these projects
is because this is the dirtiest project on the planet - the tar sands.
And we are standing in solidarity with people
affected and impacted currently by tar sands developments.
And we understand that the volumes
proposed to be transported through our territories either by pipelines
or also pipelines on rail, that would facilitate the expansion of the tar sands.
The building of oil and gas infrastructure
also has global implications.
Climate scientists warn of the ecological catastrophy that planet faces
if greenhouse gas emisions are not stopped.
In the face of overwhelming scientific evidence, governments
and corporations continue to fight wars
and destroy lands, to extract and burn hydrocarbons.
All the while big environmental groups cut deals with industry
and claim false victories in the name of the Earth.
It is increasingly clear that the only hope for our planet
is for uncompromising resistance movements to organize
outside of mainstream environmentalism and fight to win.
In august of 2011 over a thousand people
including some high profile celebrities
voluntarily handed themselves over to the cops in Washington D.C.
to try to stop the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
Around the same time the US State Departement issued a statement
saying, that the proposed project will have no significant impact
on the environment.
Hinting that the US government is ready to rubber stamp Keystone XL.
This was a wakeup call for activists.
That it will take more than non-violent civil disobedience
to stop new pipelines.
If approved, the Keystone XL
would bring millions of barrels of tar sands oil from Canada
through the US.
And some 840 000 gallons of oil continues to flow
down the Kalamazoo River.
Last year, Enbridge had a spill in the Kalamazoo and it was a disaster.
A river that the community had spent
decades cleaning up and making into a really
wonderful place for people for fishing
and for leisure activities, suddenly became unusable,
because Enbridge spilled thousands of liters of diluted bichamen
into the Kalamazoo River and it´s still not safe to eat fish from that river.
Enbridge has proposed a pipeline project called the Northern Gateway,
that will begin in Alberta and traverse through
central British Columbia,
bringing unrefined oil from the tar sands
to the pacific coast of Canada.
This pipeline is proposed to cross a number of rivers and streams.
If there were a spill or a construction impact on water quality,
the effects could be felt downstream.
Especially because of the migration of fish and wildlife.
Not only does Northern Gateway pose a threat to ecospheres in B.C.,
if would also encroach on the sovereignty
of indigenous peoples lands.
Most of the lands the pipeline will cross in B.C., were never surrendered
or ceded to governments.
This includes the lands of the Uni´sto´ten clan of the Wet'suet'en Nation,
whose territory includes parts of the Maurice river.
We have never ceded or surrendered our lands to anybody here.
There is no treaty, there is no relationship built with any government
in the past, none of our people signed anything to let them make
decisions on our territory.
This is Wetsueten land.
This is not Canada, this is not B.C.
What we are standing on is Unistoten territory.
And this river is probably one of the top rivers that we can drink
directly from. It is not a whole lot of these rivers in the world left.
Even though they say it´s safe, we have been hearing all of the media,
all these pipes breaking and all of the waterways getting damaged
and we are just not gonna accept that risk.
Because we don´t want it be 25 years, 10 years down the road
telling our kids: "We used to have moose here", and "We used to fish",
"and these are the species that we used to catch".
We don´t want it to become stories like that.
We want actually to be going out there and doing that with them.
The Unistoten sent a clear message to the oil industry
and to all levels of government:
No pipelines will go through their terrritory.
Pipelines are trying to go right through
where the salmon spawn. And that´s where we decided
to put the action camp.
And last year we put a cabin right smack in the way of the pipeline.
Right now we are standing directly on a GPS point
of the proposed Enbridge Inc. Northern Gateway Pipeline proposal.
And this is also our place where we´re going to be standing off with them.
The Northern Gateway is one of the many
pipeline projects that would attempt to cut through
stolen native lands.
The proposed Pacific Trails Pipeline has already been approved
by the canadian government
and it will bring liquified natural gas from Summit Lake B.C. to Kitimat
for export to the pacific coast.
Pacific Trails Pipeline stays in the way for Enbridge.
Their right of way is exactly the same follows Enbridge wants to go.
And Enbridge has had huge opposition.
If Pacific Trails goes in and opens up a right of way,
Enbridge can say,
"Well, our impact on the land, and the waterways is mitigated,
because there is already an existing pipeline in there."
We are stopping you.
And one of the things that is really, really important about this,
is that we don´t expect you to secede,
whether your so called B.C. government occupies our territories,
is approving you or not.
We are stopping you.
In Vancouver, unceded Coast Salish territory,
opposition is growing to the planned increase in capacity
of an existing pipeline owned and operated by Kinder Morgan.
Today this pipeline brings over 300.000 barrels of oil
from Alberta to Vancouver.
Kinder Morgan would like to double that.
This new oil surge would mean more tankers
navigating in and out of the sensitive ocean
ecosystems around Vancouver.
Bumping the odds of oil spills reminescent of the
Exxon Valdez in Alaska.
It could also mean pipeline raptures through natural environments
and residential areas.
Like the 2007 pipeline rapture in the city of Burnaby.
It´s sprayed like a gaiser.
Thick crude oil spurted more than 30 meters into the air
from the raptured pipeline,
coating everything it touched.
So we are just in between the Chevron refinery and the storage facility
that they have on the west side of Willington Drive.
As in north Burnaby, just on the broad end..
..we are just above the water right now.
This is, I guess, some of the pipelines that run from the rafinery out to the storage area.
How close to the water are we roughly.
I am guessing about two or three hundred yards.
In our next report we will look on Vancouvers dirty little secret.
The massive conglomerate of oil infrastructure facilities in neighbourinig Burnaby.
Subtitles by Mieroslav