{"id":53315,"date":"2015-02-02T12:00:31","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T12:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=53315"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:26:09","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:26:09","slug":"canada-kinder-morgan-corp-leaves-burnaby-mountain-in-win-for-pipeline-protesters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/02\/canada-kinder-morgan-corp-leaves-burnaby-mountain-in-win-for-pipeline-protesters\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada: Kinder Morgan Corp Leaves Burnaby Mountain in Win for Pipeline Protesters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Protesters<\/a>

Protesters rally against the proposed Kinder Morgan oil pipeline on Burnaby Mountain in British Columbia on November 17. (Flickr \/ Mark Klotz)<\/p><\/div>\n

On the morning of November 28 [2014], after weeks of sustained protest<\/a>, energy infrastructure company Kinder Morgan packed up the equipment it had planned to use in the construction of a new pipeline on Burnaby Mountain in British Columbia, and left without finishing the job.<\/p>\n

Weeks earlier, the company had legally declared a \u201cno protest zone\u201d \u2014 valid through December 1 \u2014 to keep protesters away from the mountainside construction sites on the grounds that their presence would present a safety hazard and undue expenses. When that wasn\u2019t enough, they filed an application with the British Columbia Supreme Court to extend the injunction for another two weeks. But the court rejected<\/a> their application, when it was revealed that Kinder Morgan had provided the wrong GPS coordinates for the injunction zone. As a result, charges were also lifted from the over 100 people arrested for civil contempt due to a lack of clarity around where they could and could not be on the mountain.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, the ruling means that Kinder Morgan can no longer continue construction on the site, as it has no legal grounds to do so. According to Reuters<\/a>, the project would have more than tripled the volume of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline, which transports an estimated 300,000 barrels of tar sands oil daily through Alberta and British Columbia.<\/p>\n

Kinder Morgan Canada President Ian Anderson described the last few weeks as a \u201cchallenging time.\u201d The Texas-based company not only faced pressure at the mine site, but a public relations battle: a poll found that 70 percent of residents opposed the Trans Mountain expansion. While the \u201cjobs vs. environment\u201d argument continues to hold sway up north, oil companies may have to find new talking points: The country\u2019s clean energy sector employed more Canadians than the fossil fuel industry<\/a> last year, with employment figures jumping 37 percent over the last five years.<\/p>\n

Protests were attended by local residents, students, environmental groups and indigenous advocates, who took on a lead role in the anti-pipeline organizing. The land on which Kinder Morgan intended to build the expansion is the unceded traditional territory<\/a> of the Tseil-Waututh, Musqueam, Sto:lo and Squamish Nations. Tseil-Waututh representatives have filed a legal challenge with Canada\u2019s Federal Court of Appeals. Building the pipeline would also run directly counter to a recent U.N. report<\/a> stating that companies need explicit consent from Canada\u2019s First Nations before beginning construction, even as First Nations\u2019 land rights are enshrined in the country\u2019s constitution.<\/p>\n

Sut-Lut, a Squamish Nation elder who kept a fire burning throughout the protests, told a local paper<\/a>, \u201cThis isn\u2019t a First Nations issue, it\u2019s not a Burnaby resident problem only, it\u2019s a people problem, and it\u2019s about our survival. We have one Earth, and unless this government is hiding another healthy Earth somewhere, we need to take care of the one we\u2019ve got, and it\u2019s now, it\u2019s now we have to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Activists took part in a festival commemorating the court\u2019s decision on Burnaby Mountain this past weekend, including workshops, dance performances, parties and speak-outs. Celebrating the victory, veteran organizer Valerie Langer explained to the Vancouver Observer<\/a> that \u201cThis is just one battle, and there are still a lot of battles to come.\u201d Oil companies TransCanada and Enbridge are each seeking to build or expand oil pipelines through other parts of Canada.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s ruling represents a turning point for anti-extraction fights across North America. Combined with recent victories against the Keystone XL and Energy East pipelines, fossil fuel companies can expect more \u201cchallenging times\u201d in the months and years to come.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 wagingnonviolence.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the morning of November 28 [2014], after weeks of sustained protest, energy infrastructure company Kinder Morgan packed up the equipment it had planned to use in the construction of a new pipeline on Burnaby Mountain in British Columbia, and left without finishing the job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}