By BRAELA KWANMarch 16, 2021 GMT
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) Members of Canada’s First Nations and their allies are mounting last-ditch challenges to two massive fossil fuel pipelines that already are under construction and have strong government backing.
In campaigns reminiscent of the Standing Rock protests in the U.S. Great Plains, the anti-pipeline actions in Canada’s far West feature acts of civil disobedience including blockading roads and construction sites, and coordinated campaigns against banks and underwriters that are financing the pipelines. Dozens of protesters have been arrested. But they say they are determined to continue their resistance.
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“We have to protect the land and the water no matter what. Our survival depends on it,” said Mike McKenzie, an anti-pipeline activist who is a member of the Secwepemc Nation. He said he had to move off his ancestral territory to escape harassment by local law enforcement.
InvestigateWest: Activists fight fossil-fuel pipelines sfgate.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sfgate.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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‘A disgrace’: First Nation Pipeline opponent gets 90 days in jail after ceremony along Trans Mountain route So, is there a degree of (anti-Indigenous) targeting happening? That, to me, is a fair question to ask.
“A disgrace.”
That’s how Canadian author and activist Naomi Klein reacted Tuesday to the news that Stacy Gallagher, an Indigenous land defender, had been sentenced to 90 days in jail after being arrested in 2019 for
performing a ceremony along the Trans Mountain pipeline route in British Columbia. VICE, which was informed of Gallagher’s plight by a source close to him, the three-month prison sentence handed down by judge Shelley Fitzpatrick comes “despite a new policy that urges prosecutors to avoid jail time for Indigenous peoples if it’s under two years,” an initiative “geared towards protecting Indigenous peoples from a biased justice system.”
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Groups ask for pause to Ring of Fire work until plans in place for clean water, peatlands
Noront Resources announced in 2019 that it planned on locating a ferrochrome processing plant in Sault Ste. Marie that would be fed by chromite from the Ring of Fire. Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines Photo / Facebook
A coalition of Indigenous and environmental organizations is calling on the Canadian and Ontario governments to impose an “immediate moratorium” on all mineral exploration or impact assessment work related to the Ring of Fire region.
A dozen organizations, including the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) and the Omushkegowuk Women s Water Council (OWWC), have penned an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Environment and Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson and provincial leaders asking for the pause.
by Guest on March 1st, 2021 at 5:08 PM 1 of 3 2 of 3
By Linda Nowlan and the norms and notions of what just is isn t always just-ice..
Who didn’t have a shiver running down their spine listening to U.S. Youth Inauguration poet Amanda Gorman’s poem, “The Hill We Climb”? I know I did. In part, because I know that when it comes to climate change, we’re a long way off from justice. Her poem inspired the title of the UBC Sustainability Initiative’s first Climate Justice free webinar coming up on Friday (March 5): Just Is ≠ Justice.
The notion of climate justice confronts the fact that marginalized people the world over suffer from environmental damage they had no part in creating.