Protesters gathered outside the office of North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney on Friday, March 23, joining similar actions across the country in opposition of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
“This is a nationwide day of demonstration at MP offices right across the country to deal with this issue going on in Vancouver with Kinder Morgan expansion and the expansion of the tar sands,” said Climate Action Powell River communications director Bill Lytle-McGhee.
Blaney stated that she opposes expansion of the pipeline.
“The Kinder Morgan expansion was given federal approval through a review process the Trudeau government acknowledged was flawed, yet have refused to fix,” said Blaney in the statement. “Our communities have legitimate environmental concerns that have not been addressed. Without social licence, without meeting the commitments of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, this project should not have been approved. We will continue to stand with those who fight for our coast.”
Earlier in the day, federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May and NDP Burnaby South MP Kennedy Stewart were arrested in Vancouver for participating in the blockade at Kinder Morgan’s pipeline terminal in Burnaby.
May and Kennedy are among approximately 60 protesters arrested this week in violation of a BC Supreme Court injunction not to obstruct, impede or prevent access to Kinder Morgan’s Burnaby Mountain site.
Powell River resident Ron Berezan said he has made the trip south three times in recent weeks to join protests in the Vancouver area.
“People are getting arrested every day, people from all walks of life: indigenous people, grandmothers, students, all kinds of folks who are of the opinion that this pipeline is a threat to our well-being on the coast, that it violates indigenous peoples’ rights and that we don't need it,” said Berezan. “We simply don't need it. It's bad economics, bad environmental policy and we need to demonstrate our opposition in a dramatic way.”
