Oil in Eden: The Battle to Protect Canada’s Pacific Coast

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Watch this new 16 minute documentary – produced by Damien Gillis for Pacific Wild – on the battle to stop the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline from the Alberta Tar Sands, and the associated oil supertankers that would gravely threaten BC’s spectacular coast.

Oil in Eden: The Battle to Protect Canada’s Pacific Coast from Pacific Wild on Vimeo.

It’s one of the last bastions of Canadian wilderness: the Great Bear Rainforest, on BC’s north and central Pacific coast. Home to bountiful marine mammals, fish, and wildlife – from orca and humpback whales to wild salmon, wolves, grizzlies, and the legendary spirit bear – this spectacular place is now threatened by a proposal to bring an oil pipeline and supertankers to this fragile and rugged coast.

The plan is to pump over half a million barrels a day of unrefined bitumen from the Alberta Tar Sands over the Rockies, through the heartland of BC – crossing a thousand rivers and streams in the process – to the Port of Kitimat, in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest. From there, supertankers would ply the rough and dangerous waters of the BC coast en route to Asia and the United States. Dubbed the Northern Gateway Pipeline, the project is of concern for three main reasons: 1. It would facilitate the expansion of the Tar Sands, hooking emerging Asian economies on the world’s dirtiest oil; 2. the risks from the pipeline itself; 3. the danger of introducing oil supertankers for the first time to this part of the BC coast.

Now a growing coalition of First Nations, conservation groups, and concerned citizens from Canada and around the world is banding together to say no the Enbridge project, in what is shaping up to be the defining Canadian environmental battle of our time. Produced by Canadian filmmaker Damien Gillis for Pacific Wild, This 16 minute short documentary – featuring stunning images from the Great Bear Rainforest – provides a summary of the key issues involved in this battle over the pipeline, tankers, and Canada’s Pacific coast.

Please forward this video to your friends and colleagues – and go to PacificWild.org and PipeUpAgainstEnbridge.ca to take action today to help protect BC from Enbridge’s proposal.

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About Damien Gillis

Damien Gillis is a Vancouver-based documentary filmmaker with a focus on environmental and social justice issues - especially relating to water, energy, and saving Canada's wild salmon - working with many environmental organizations in BC and around the world. He is the co-founder, along with Rafe Mair, of The Common Sense Canadian, and a board member of both the BC Environmental Network and the Haig-Brown Institute.

19 thoughts on “Oil in Eden: The Battle to Protect Canada’s Pacific Coast

  1. I agree with everything you have said. In fashion, internships are usually for free. And they’ll make sure that they use you to have the work done for cheaper. So I do agree on cautioning; however, the art and enterntainment world is a small one as you said, so one shouldn’t talk much.
    curt

  2. our precious natural resources in the safe manner you have been doing for over 50 years. All of us in the real world (I guess that means us in Alberta and not the left coast) are behind you 100%.

  3. There is absolutely no way i want oil tankers here. For God’s sake, let us try to save some of what’s left for the next generationsWeb Design

  4. KELLY NEEDS TO TAKE A TRIP TO THE NORTH COAST AND FOLLOW THE ROUTE OF THE PROPOSED OIL SUPER TANKERS! SPEND SOME TIME TALKING TO BRITISH COLUMBIANS WHOSE LIVES WOULD BE CHANGED FOREVER… AND NOT FOR THE GOOD!
    THEN YOU’LL KNOW WE’RE NOT TALKING “FAIRY TALES”!
    BY THE WAY KELLY… HAVE YOU READ ANYTHING ON “FERRY TALES”??

  5. Kelly, if it’s one-sided that has a lot to do with the company’s refusal to put forth their position on camera, after four months of attempts on our part. You would think that if the project and its economic benefits were as wonderful as you suggest, they’d be happy to tell that story. As for your confidence in the project moving forward, we’ll see…This is, after all, the only project application to advance to this stage of NEB review without a single committed supplier of oil (excuse me, bitumen – destined to be refined in other countries, who will receive the bulk of the job benefits you tout). And with the massive First Nations opposition they face, I wouldn’t be betting on this project – but that’s your prerogative…On the economic benefits, you are hopelessly vague here, which is because there are no real long-term economic benefits from this project – at least to the people of BC being asked to take all the risks for a company with a long track record of spills. Maybe a thousand low-skill local jobs for a couple of years, and then what? One of the first considerations of business is risk-vs-reward, something you clearly fail to grasp…

  6. This film is a great work as long as we are talking about one-sided environmental propaganda. People seem to forget that resources drive the economy and the dollar in Canada. Make no mistake about it, this pipeline will be built no matter what environmentalists think about how it offends the “legendary spirit bear”. Dollars versus fairy tales: guess which is going to win out people…

    Enbridge, please continue to ship our precious natural resources in the safe manner you have been doing for over 50 years. All of us in the real world (I guess that means us in Alberta and not the left coast) are behind you 100%.

  7. I’m adding my voice to try to protect our coastline. There is absolutely no way i want oil tankers here. For God’s sake, let us try to save some of what’s left for the next generations

  8. The pipeline construction alone would be an environmental disaster with invasive species introduced along the entire route.
    We must stop this proposal as soon as possible and send a message to the corporate world that the citizens of Canada will no longer allow massive environmental damage occur in the name of huge profits for their shareholders and CEO’s.
    If the multinationals want to create jobs, let them create jobs in truly non invasive green energy technologies that can be sold to the world.

  9. That’s a good question. We’ll look into that. One thing to remember though is it’s not just bitumen – it’s diluted – sometimes up to 40 or 50% with natural gas condensate – because of how thick it is. It doesn’t flow through a pipeline otherwise. So what’s spilled would be a mixture of condensate and bitumen. What their floatation properties are, we’ll get back to you on – but neither is a good thing for the marine ecosystem.

  10. Gotta ask. How is Bitumen different from regular crude? I know it’s thicker but if it spilled in the ocean would it float or sink?

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