‘Radical’ environmental groups fighting back
Northern B.C.-based environmental groups opposed to Enbridge's proposed $5.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline are fighting a "radical environmentalist" label pinned on them by the federal government.
A coalition of northern B.C. groups ran an ad in a Smithers newspaper just before a federal review panel held hearings in the community Monday.
The review, expected to last 18 months, will determine whether the project is environmentally safe and in the public interest.
The ad shows the faces of more than 100 northern British Columbians and asks: "The Harper Government and 'Ethical Oil' call these people radicals.... Seriously?"
The coalition - under the umbrella of Friends of Wild Salmon - plans to run similar ads in other northwest B.C. communities.
The people in the ad include doctors, farmers, loggers, fisherman and business people, said Pat Moss, a spokeswoman for Friends of Wild Salmon.
"They are not the usual suspects when people think of environmentalists," said Moss.
She said Friends of Wild Salmon is not a charitable group and money was donated for the ad campaign from individuals in the region and other areas of B.C.
The first ad cost about $800.
The ad campaign is a direct response to federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver's recent characterization that radical environmental groups are trying to block Canada's opportunity to diversify trade in oil to Asia by hijacking the regulatory review of Northern Gateway.
Some environmental groups, such as the B.C.-based Dogwood Initiative, helped sign up 1,600 of the more than 4,000 people who will have an opportunity to give a 10-minute oral statement during the review.
And the group EthicalOil. org - started by conservative political activist and author Ezra Levant - earlier this month launched a series of ads in weekly northern B.C. newspapers and on radio attacking environmental groups opposed to Northern Gateway of taking money from U.S. foreign interests.
Dawn Remington, a retired fisheries biologist from Smithers, dismisses the idea she is a radical environmentalist.
The group she is a member of, Friends of Morice-Bulkley, does not take money from foreign interests, she said.
"We're a bunch of locals not typically involved," said Remington of her group, which is part of the Friends of Wild Salmon coalition.
"When we heard the news of a major pipeline going through our watershed it set off alarm bells," she said.
The Morice-Bulkley group has about 10 core volunteers and an email list of 250. It has received a $5,000 grant from the Smithers-based Driftwood Foundation, said Remington. (The Driftwood Foundation takes donations locally and from other sources, including Americans, say foundation officials).
The Morice and Bulkley are two of the rivers in northern B.C. along the 1,172-kilometre pipeline route.
EthicalOil.org has not disclosed where it gets its funding, or whether it has received funding from Enbridge or other oil companies.
ghoekstra@vancouversun.com