Members of a First Nation in northern B.C. have evicted surveyors working on a natural gas pipeline project from their territory and set up a roadblock against all pipeline activity.
A group identifying itself as the Unis’tot’en clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation said surveyors for Apache Canada’s Pacific Trails Pipeline were trespassing.
“The Unis’tot’en clan has been dead-set against all pipelines slated to cross through their territories, which include PTP [Pacific Trails Pipeline], Enbridge’s Northern Gateway and many others,” Freda Huson, a spokesperson for the group, said in a statement.
“As a result of the unsanctioned PTP work in the Unis’tot’en yintah, the road leading into the territory has been closed to all industry activities until further notice.”
Note: This summer we have seen an upsurge in action camps from Vermont to Appalachia, Pennsylvania to British Columbia. As governments fail to stop fossil fuel extraction, it is time to turn up the heat in opposing extreme energy like hydrofracking, Tar Sands and MTR, and false solutions to climate change like mega-hydro dams, REDD and carbon markets.
This year’s camp attracted over 150 people who came from as far east as Montreal and as far south as Florida. The camp organizers opted not to tap large environmental NGO’s for material support, and instead reached out to grassroots, community based allies.
Out of the proposed pipeline projects that would cross through Unis’tot’en land, Pacific Trails is the first one slated to begin construction and poses and immediate threat. The PTP project is partnership between Apache Canada,Encana and EOG Resources formerly Enron Oil and Gas. The 463-kilometer PTP pipeline would connect a liquified natural gas port in the pacific ocean to theSpectra Energy Westcoast Pipeline in North East BC, with the aim of transporting gas extracted through fracking, to overseas markets.
The much talked about Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline would transport tar sands oil from Fort McMurray, an extraction project that is devastating the nature and indigenous communities in the Athabasca region of Northern Alberta. The Enbridge pipeline would be built side by side to the PTP.
These dirty energy schemes not only threaten nature and indigenous communities in the north. They also have global implications. If decisive action is not taken to stop the flows of oil and gas, the effects of global climate change could be catastrophic for people, plants and animals the world over. This is why Indigenous people and their allies traveled from far away to this camp. Our next report will focus on the student strike in Quebec and how it evolved into a social movement. To help make this happen click here to make a donation.
Climate Connections exposes the intertwined root causes of social injustice, ecological destruction and economic domination through the lens of climate change.
Climate Connections is a project of Global Justice Ecology Project.
Christy Rodgers
Global Justice Ecology Project
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Jeff Conant
