A few British Columbians have plunged into icy waters to protest the Kinder Morgan pipeline.
It all started on Feb. 12 when the Dogwood Initiative’s Kai Nagata went for a walk with his friend Caitlin on the North Shore. With the sun shining down on the Seymour River, Caitlin dared Nagata to go for a swim.
“I just figured if I was going to do that, I wanted it on camera, so we made it into a challenge,” said Nagata, the communications director of the advocacy group, which rallies around democracy and the environment.
And so the Kinder Morgan Challenge – also known as #KMchallenge on social media – was born.
Unlike 2014’s Ice Bucket Challenge that raised money and brought awareness to ALS, #KMchallenge looks to highlight the risks of an oil spill in the province’s waterways. Construction on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, which will carry diluted bitumen from Alberta to Burnaby at triple its current capacity, is expected to start in September.
Nagata said people often take B.C.’s beauty for granted, and he hopes his challenge reminds folks of what they have.
“Lots of places in the world, you couldn’t just take the bus or go for a walk and just jump into the river,” he told the NOW. “Fresh water is our most important natural resource. We’re very lucky to have all these clean rivers and lakes and aquifers. They’re under threat.”
Nagata’s sister Kesia also stripped down to her bathing suit to do the challenge. Due to freezing temperatures, the 26-year-old rolled around in a few inches of water on the Kispiox River in Northern B.C.
“I oppose the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion and the high risk it poses to clean and natural water. I don’t mind humiliating myself a little if it brings some attention to the poor planning behind Kinder Morgan’s proposed project,” she said.
Also joining in on the fun was Green party MLA candidate Adam Olsen, who is running in the riding of Saanich North and the Islands and was an intervenor during the NEB’s Kinder Morgan hearings. He immediately took the challenge after being nominated by Dogwood staffer Christina Smethurst.
“I live a few feet from the Saanich Inlet and thought, ‘You know what, I’m just going to go do it right now,’ and brought my kids down there with me,” he told the NOW. “As you can see in the video, they took great pleasure in me tripping and getting soaking wet.”
It’s important to keep the pipeline issue “front and centre,” according to Olsen, who didn’t mind going into the brisk water in February.
“I have to say, there’s something about jumping into a cold ocean that resets your thermostat, and I have never felt better after that,” he said.
Over the weekend, Rick McGowan, Green candidate for Burnaby-Deer Lake, took the dip after seeing Olsen’s video. He ventured out to Barnet Marine Park with his daughter, who caught it all on camera.
“It was warmer than I expected,” he told the NOW. “It’s a good opportunity to help raise awareness for the issue. It’s not the only issue in the next election, but it is an important one.”
About eight people have taken the chilly plunge so far, according to Nagata.
Asked if he thinks the challenge will catch on, he couldn’t say.
“My friends in Quebec think it’s insane. I guess they live with winter six months of the year; the idea of getting nearly nude and jumping in the water is pretty horrifying to them. I think people in B.C. are intrigued. It’ll depend who jumps in next. I think people are competitive, people want to show their friends how tough they are, so we’ll see.”
