First Nations members bring pipeline protest to the steps of Alberta legislature
EDMONTON - Colouring in a protest sign that read, “Our answer is no! Our answer is final!” 11-year-old Ta’Kaiya Blaney said Wednesday she has a “strong feeling” a massive pipeline proposed to carry bitumen from Alberta to the West Coast will never be built.
“There’s so many people that oppose it,” she said. “Also, Canada needs our consent and they’re not going to get it.”
Ta’Kaiya, from the Sliammon Nation near Powell River, B.C., is one of 40 people travelling by train across Canada this week to protest the proposed $5.5-billion Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline project. The train stopped in Edmonton Wednesday so people could rally first at the Alberta legislature, then outside Enbridge’s Jasper Avenue office at 102nd Street. The protesters expect to be in Toronto by May 9, in time for Enbridge’s annual general meeting, and hope to win broad support along the way. Protests are scheduled in Saskatchewan and Manitoba over the next few days.
Like her adult counterparts, Ta’Kaiya flagged the absence of negotiated land claims in British Columbia as a major stumbling block for the project. B.C. First Nations have widely opposed the pipeline while federal and provincial governments seeking access to Asian markets for Alberta’s oilsands products support it. The Government of Alberta, for example, has said the pipeline could create $72 billion in revenues to oil companies over nine years.
In ongoing public hearings weighing the project, Alberta First Nations groups have largely asked questions about job prospects, Enbridge’s equity offers to aboriginal groups whose lands would be crossed by the pipeline, and potential environmental effects.
But Nadleh Whut’en Chief Martin Louie, from British Columbia, said Wednesday morning aboriginal people stand together to oppose the project and protect their lands from potential spills and threats to water quality. The so-called “freedom train,” organized by a coalition of Northern B.C. First Nations called the Yinka Dene Alliance, is testament to that unity.
“Governments can’t pretend we’re not here,” Louie said. “Everybody’s watching, the world is watching how Canada treats the aboriginal people of the land ... and they’re going to be watching us for awhile.”
Enbridge spokesman Todd Nogier said the groups involved in Wednesday’s protest “have made their position known to us before.”
Nogier said the company’s goal is to engage in further discussions with the alliance to better understand their concerns and discuss solutions, handling of risks, and potential benefits to communities.
Geraldine Thomas Flurer, an alliance organizer, said the costs of the trip have been covered by donations, including in-kind gifts such as offers of places for people to stay and a welcoming feast in Edmonton. She said suggestions the tab would be covered by environmental groups like Greenpeace — who did have a presence at Wednesday’s rally — were insulting. “We’re our own people, we’re our own boss. No one does anything for us, we do for ourselves,” Flurer said. “To say that another organization or other people speak for us or do things for us, or even plan for us, is an insult.”