Emergency Rally Against Kinder Morgan Bailout on Parliament Hill

On Tuesday, May 22nd with the deadline looming for the Trans Mountain expansion project, Ken Forster and I, joined dozens of anti-pipeline activists protesting the Liberal government’s “blank cheque” to Kinder Morgan on Parliament Hill.

We listened to Chief Robert Chamberlin, vice-president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, in a speech over the phone express great disappointment to see the government willing to take taxpayers’ dollars to bail out a project that simply should not be built and Maude Barlow, honorary chairperson of the Council of Canadians spoke about the need to respect Indigenous rights and need to protect our sources of water, for the planet is running out of clean, fresh water.

The next speaker was Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the NDP, who called the Trans Mountain consultation process with Indigenous communities “a sham for the Liberal Government had already  decided to support the pipeline before consulting with Indigenous communities in B.C.  An idea that Elizabeth May, Green Party Of Canada leader, expressed in her passionate speech, as she responded to Finance Minister Morneau’s announcement that the federal government is ready to use public money to indemnify the Kinder Morgan pipeline project.  The proposed bailout demonstrates the disconnect between the reality of Indigenous Title and Rights and the federal government’s approach to Kinder Morgan, and breaks the Trudeau government’s promise to phase out fossil fuel subsidies.

Kinder Morgan has set a May 31 deadline for the B.C., Alberta and federal governments to come to an agreement on the divisive project.  At that point, the Texas-based company has threatened to pull out.  If the pipeline goes through, it will triple the amount of diluted bitumen flowing from Alberta to the coastline.

To view the CBC coverage on this rally, please click here: CBC News – Rally against Kinder Morgan bailout

By Jim Bleackley, OMI