Opponents of the Trans Mountain pipeline are not giving up following Tuesday’s announcement that the federal government will purchase the Trans Mountain pipeline and the expansion for $4.5 billion.
Members of the ongoing protest groups Protect the Inlet (the watch house), Camp Cloud and the Justin Trudeau Brigade all indicated they would continue to oppose the project, regardless of who owns it. The three groups, as well as Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion, have been regularly demonstrating in different ways at Trans Mountain’s two Burnaby facilities over the last few months.
The announcement is only reinvigorating the Justin Trudeau Brigade, a group that has been mostly inactive since the B.C. Supreme Court issued an injunction specifically naming them in March. Early Friday morning, the group is planning on enforcing their own “People’s Injunction,” signed by more than 140 people – many who live in Burnaby’s Westridge and Forest Grove neighbourhoods – demanding that work on the pipeline expansion stop immediately.
“We’re going to physically, directly intervene and stop the destruction, starting on Friday.” David Mivasair of the Justin Trudeau Brigade told the NOW.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s the Canadian government or profit-making organization, we can directly, physically stop it.”
In small groups of three or four, the group plans on blocking workers and trucks from entering or leaving the facility, but they will leave if they are threatened with arrest.
Will George, a member of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation who is leading the protests organized by Protect the Inlet (the watch house) on Burnaby mountain, says his groups’ resistance will continue. By press deadline, further protests organized by this group were expected in Vancouver on Tuesday evening.
“This changes nothing, in fact, we’re going to have to work even harder to continue relaying that message to Justin Trudeau and his government,” he told the NOW. “It’s unacceptable for him to spend taxpayer dollars on it, especially $4.5 billion when all across Canada there is no clean drinking water for most (Indigenous) nations. It’s unacceptable for him to spend money in that way, especially if he wants to be a climate leader and respect reconciliation.”
In a way, protests against the pipeline appeared to have had their intended effect, George said.
“Ultimately Kinder Morgan finds it a poor investment for them and their shareholders, it’s a poor investment for our taxpayer dollars too,” he said.
At Camp Cloud, the protest camp is expected to remain and operate as usual, says Makeda Martin, who was staying at the camp on Tuesday.
“Water is life. We can’t drink gasoline, we can’t use it to grow our food, we can’t use it to replace all this old-growth forest and all these non-renewable resources that we continue to consume like Pac Men,” she told the NOW. “We will continue to fight for this land. We are the stewards of this land.”
