One is not supposed to anticipate lawbreaking, much less say that one will participate. Interesting that as I write this, it is the 71st anniversary of Winston Churchill becoming Prime Minister of Britain. I claim no resemblance to the great man – I only say that I learned from him that candour is the only sensible, and indeed honest, way to deal with problems.
I must tell you, then, that there will be civil disobedience all over the province if the governments proceed with BC’s Fish Farm Policy and its Energy Plan and, with federal blessing, with the pipelines and tankers taking the bitumen from the Tar Sands over BC’s wilderness and down our coast in tankers.
Let me set forth the problems about which I intend to be candid:
- Our wild salmon are in extreme danger and much of that danger comes from salmon farms with the profits going overseas. Closed containment is rejected by the farmers as being too expensive. Think on that. What they’re clearly saying is “in order to run our business we need British Columbians to absorb the cost of going to closed containment!” They say, plainly, that the cost to BC must be your environment and your wild salmon.
- Independent Power Producers (IPPs) are ruining our rivers with their dams, roads and transmission lines.
- BC Hydro, on direct orders from the Liberal government must make sweetheart deals with these IPPs by which they must pay them more than double what Hydro (through their export arm Powerex) can sell it for – or use it themselves instead at 9-12 times what BC Hydro can make the power for themselves.
- IPP power is produced during the run-off when BC Hydro doesn’t need the power and thus must accept this private power at a huge loss.
- Because of the foregoing BC Hydro must pay IPPs, over the next 20-40 years over $50 Billion – rising with each contract – for power they don’t need. (When the Clark government says we need IPP power to make BC self sufficient they are lying through their teeth).
- Virtually none of the IPP profits stay in BC and the jobs, after construction – mostly from outside the communities where the projects are built – are custodial only.
- Both the federal and BC governments support Enbridge building two 1000+ km pipelines from the Tar Sands to Kitimat, one for bringing the bitumen (i.e. Tar Sands gunk) to Kitimat, the second to take the natural gas derivative that is mixed with the bitumen so it is sufficiently liquefied to pass through the pipeline, back to Alberta. Because there is no timeline involved, a burst pipe is not a risk but a certainty.
- Kinder-Morgan, who owns the existing bitumen pipeline from the Tar Sands to the the Burrard Inlet near Vancouver, wants to more than double its capacity – meaning a dramatic increase in supertankers carrying bitumen right by Vancouver, the Gulf Islands, and Victoria.
- When (not if) a pipeline bursts there is nothing Enbridge or Kinder-Morgan can do except shut off the supply with all the gunk already in the pipeline going onto the lands and creeks it passes. One can readily see that every second after a rupture, the spill will be aggravated. Enbridge’s record in these matters is appalling – their dumping of bitumen last summer into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan being but one example.
- These pipelines pass through some of the last wilderness left in the world and there is no way tEnbridge can patrol over 1000 km of pipe in this wilderness and even if they did, nothing can be done about the bitumen in the pipes for days or longer if there’s a rupture.
- The Federal and Provincial governments have already agreed to approve huge tankers taking the bitumen down the BC coast – probably the most dangerous coast in the world and, again, it’s not a risk of loss and catastrophic consequences but a certainty we’re dealing with. Prime Minister Harper compares this coastline with the Atlantic coast or the Great Lakes!
- Finally, I feel compelled to mention that I learned recently the BC Liberal government is quietly designing a wolf “management” (read “slaughter”) plan that will likely sanction, among other horrors, the killing of wolves from helicopters under the pretense of protecting caribou populations. I dealt with this crap when I was Environment Minister in 1979, instituting a ban on the slaughter of wolves; clearly the forces in favour of this arcane practice never let up.
Here is the kicker: The public has virtually no say as to whether or not these projects will proceed.
The only public input permitted is the right to go to the environmental assessment process which comes after the decision to go ahead has been made, and then only to make suggestions about environmental rules to be followed.
Here’s what I said earlier: “I must tell you, then, that there will be civil disobedience all over the province if the governments proceed with BC’s Fish Farm Policy and its Energy Plan and, with federal blessing, with the pipelines and tankers taking the bitumen from the Tar Sands over BC’s wilderness and down our coast in tankers.”
Now let me pose this question: Is there any way these projects can be stopped without people picketing and going to jail?
And whose fault will that be – The Cassandra who predicts what will happen or the governments which not only permit but actively support the environmental crimes, and bankruptcy of BC Hydro, brought on knowingly and heedlessly by these governments?
Sign me up! We need massive demonstrations by Canadians about governments that no longer serve our safety and well-being. Food, water, energy, medical care, housing, transportation and education should be Public Rights, NOT privatized commodities. The government’s job should be to mobilize the energy of communities (through communication and fair taxation) to pay for these. Something went very wrong with free-market capitalism where managers now bargain excessive contracts and companies bargain lower and lower wages, benefits, municipal taxes and environmental protections or else just leave for a country which favours their profit – as one did recently in Campbell River, claiming need for profit in a global economy (that they created in collusion with government)! The wealthy plutocracy are getting wealthier, off-loading costs onto citizens and the environment and killing us all! Time for a social revolution and civil disobedience before it is too late!
No Tankers South Coast!
The current media spin a with “divide and conquer” (Enbridge vs. Kinder Morgan) didn’t work those that have 3/4’s of a brain left….
notankers.org
Liked the article!
I don’t know what it will take to get those in power to see this country is bleeding its self dry and there will be nothing left in a 100 yrs.
Civil disobedience is certainly a good form of protest. However, I think the government is ready for it. They tried to have Betty Krawczyk declared a habitual offender for her protests. They were trying to send a message.
On the other hand there are a lot of retired, aging baby boomers and we can’t all be put in jail and a lot of young people who want there to be a world left to them.
We export our resources and destroy our enviornment. We should be keeping the resources for future generations and extracting them verrrrry carefully.
It is all about the money. The top 1% holds 44% of Canada’s wealth. They just want more. They truly don’t care what happens to future generations.
Harper was bad enough with a minority. With a majority, he is impossible. There is a petition out, to prosecute Harper and peter MacKay for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The American citizens are dead set against the N.A.U. They despise Harper with a passion. The Americans say, Harper’s win was rigged. That I can see, over half the Canadian people, did not want Harper as P.M. There were only lead pencils, to mark the ballots with. Easily erased and changed.
Harper is arrogant and stubborn, he will bully these pollution projects through, he and Campbell have worked on behind our backs. People REALLY have to understand. NONE of the natural resources and assets Campbell has THIEVED and SOLD, has been any benefit for the BC people what-so-ever. Harper will even force, oil and gas wells drilled off BC’s coast, 6.1 earthquakes, in the Queen Charlotte’s, doesn’t even sink in to these lunatics. BC gets all the dangerous pollution, and the greedy bastards pocket trillions, and destroy our beautiful province, to do so.
We are up against monsters.
If everything goes the way the government has it planned for out here….we will have absolutely nothing left, and it’s way too precious to lose….we need to have laws that oil tankers cannot ever go through here…..unbelievable that it’s even being considered…..did anyone in politics even watch the gulf oil disaster?…..when I wrote to Christy Clark asking about how to get her to stop the oil tankers….she replied that the shareholders (who don’t even live in BC) will do their best to insure there’s no accidents….HA!……sorry….that’s totally unacceptable…..the way I see it, is that I’ve got nothing to lose…..so count me in too!
myna lee johnstone is correct “BC enviros have a reputation for competing with each other for attention,
time we got together on issues”
Following excerpt from a letter submitted to the WCEL dated Feb 2010.
“DIVIDED WE FALL, foreign corporations revel in the knowledge those who oppose are not able to execute clear, concise and “do-able” initiatives. “They” know that there is limited financial backing. “They” know human nature usually prevails and support dwindles with time when there is no financial gain.
Though many of the associations, societies and protection groups have different mandates, all of them have a common goal in reaching a viable compromise with respect to IPP’s. There should be immediate amalgamation of the committees of each of our organizations that are responsible for the effects of IPP’s on each of their mandates. United we stand.”
That co-operation needs to be extended to our politicians. Each of our parties have some good, knowledgeable people that recognize the folly of these issues. Time for them to support Mair’s Minutemen too.
i have quite a collection of signs and costumes from the last 30 years of civil disobedience in BC
and I’m still fit enough to keep it up
Clayoquot brought in recruits from around the globe
BC enviros have a reputation for competing with each other for attention
time we got together on issues
and also time we added overuse of fossil fueled vehicles
on SSI, the situation is now horrendous with over 10,000 car trips per day on the main road
the noise and stink is unbearable
where do ‘eco’ conscious people think their exhaust goes? And the noise too has driven me batty.
stop overlooking this,PLEASE!!!
People power is the only language these people understand, closed ears do not listen. Open eyes can see even with ears closed. Walk Like An Egyptian / stand tall and be Proud !
RAFE – re: wolf kill – the animal rights groups will really get onto that one
Regarding salmon fish farms . . . already people are rejecting fish and kelp because of the radiation of Fukoshima being pumped into our Pacific ocean . . .
and that issue of oil tankers . . . well, hit the pavement, people !!!
Anyone read this article in the Province, today?
http://www.theprovince.com/news/people+spoke+nobody+listened/4762316/story.html
Condensate is an increasingly toxic brew as it returns (as ballast) in tankers to be pumped to the tar sands to “thin” the bitumen to a pumpable viscosity.
Condensate….. the most toxic of “un-marketable” by products of NG, further toxified by multiple re-refinings
(It’s only value to big oil is it’s solvency) is transported over and over in ships tanks and pipelines.
No testing for condensate poisoning for the Peace was done, only Co & Co2.
Inbound tankers with 100% condensate as ballast….
Inbound pipeline with 100% condensate…..
Outbound pipeline with 50/50 condensate & bitumen….
Outbound tankers with 50/50 full toxic Mix….
This is how the multinationals and “our” governments
do “business”…(as in: “Giving you the Business”)
The definition of gov’t controlled by “business” is:
(Look it up, and fill in the blank “_ _ _ _ _ _ _”)
I’m not sure what to do but I know I won’t be able to sit at home behind my computer and fume!
Minutemen, with “minute companies” were special units whose members underwent additional training and held themselves ready to turn out rapidly (“at a minute’s notice”) for emergencies. Members of the minutemen were no more than 30 years old, and were chosen for their enthusiasm, political reliability, and strength. They were the first to arrive at or await a battle.
OK, so we can stretch that age limit out a tad……and we already recognize we are not first to arrive at this battleground for our environment……but…….”Mair’s Minutemen”…..I like it……I’m in.