Fuelled by anger and and a belief they had been betrayed, and emboldened by cancellation of Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline, more than 1,000 protesters took to Victoria’s downtown streets Thursday night to demand Ottawa change its tune on Kinder Morgan’s planned expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline.
Banging drums, chanting slogans and carrying signs reading “Kinder Morgan weapon of mass combustion” and “No consent, no pipeline,” the protesters made it clear they are ready for battle.
“Prime Minister Trudeau, by approving the pipeline and tankers, picked a fight with British Columbians. That fight starts now,” said Caitlyn Vernon, the Sierra Club’s B.C. campaign director.
Vernon, who was among the throng of protesters to gather at the downtown Victoria Public Library before marching through the streets, said there is “no way this pipeline is getting built.”
“This pipeline and tankers are not worth the risk, and we are going to do what it takes to stop it and protect the coast,” she said.
Fight and betrayal were common themes in the crowd, which occupied the intersection of Douglas and Fort streets in the shadow of TD Canada Trust and Royal Bank.
Protest organizers, claiming the banks invest in pipeline companies, suggested that people cancel their accounts with the banks and push for the institutions to divest themselves of pipeline assets.
But the main target was Trudeau, who many believed turned his back on the coast by approving the pipeline.
“I think a lot of people feel betrayed by him, a lot of people think he talks this environmental game but doesn’t walk the walk,” said protester Liam McCosh, who carried a sign reading: “Trudeau is Harper with nice hair.”
McCosh said he hoped the federal government would move toward clean energy, investing money and effort into new technologies that could create new kinds of jobs.
Kinder Morgan is looking to start construction next fall and have the expanded pipeline in service by 2019.
The new pipeline would triple existing capacity — about 890,000 barrels per day of oil — between northern Alberta and a marine terminal in Burnaby. It could also mean an increase tanker traffic, from five to as many as 34 a month.
Many of the protesters noted Kinder Morgan is a long way from being able to enact its expansion plans, pointing out federal approval is as far as Enbridge got with Northern Gateway.
Charles Campbell, communications co-ordinator for the Dogwood Initiative, one of the groups that took on Enbridge, said he was crushed by Trudeau’s decision to approve Trans Mountain. “I felt robbed of my victory over Enbridge,” he said of a fight that lasted more than 10 years.
“Enbridge is proof positive we can take these projects down,” he said. “We are ready to put ourselves on the line to stop Kinder Morgan.”
Northern Gateway had been approved by the National Energy Board and the Harper government, but a court reversed the approval this year, ruling that Ottawa had failed to adequately consult aboriginal people.
The project was killed for good this week by Trudeau.
The protest and demonstration Thursday was also a show of solidarity in support of the Standing Rock Sioux in their stand against the Dakota Access pipeline.
