B.C. pipeline protests continue to halt Ontario trains for 5th day in a row

[Decapoda]

Alberta isn't going anywhere. If they think they're having a hard time getting product to market now, it'll be virtually impossible for them to do so if they separate, other than to the US.

Alberta doesn't have to go anywhere to put the hurt on the federal government and entitled Quebec. There's already a plan to pull AB and SK out of CPP which is predicted to save them in the neighborhood of 25% a year on premiums, at the unfortunate expense of the fed and the rest of the country. A provincial police force, and greater provincial control over education would likely yield savings and promote autonomy as well for Alberta.

Also, if AB wants to send more crude through existing pipelines to make up economic shortfalls at the expense of refined product to BC, the tricky fact remains...Even though the courts have already determined that Alberta does not have authority or jurisdiction to dictate what is delivered through pipelines, what does rule of law really mean in this country anyway? It is becoming increasingly apparent that court injunctions are meaningless pieces of paper in this country that are unenforceable. If others can turn their back on law and order, what's stopping Alberta from doing the same thing to protect their economy?

The country is heading down a slippery slope, I can see trade wars and conflict between provinces being the future norm, and all of the gains with inter-provincial trade made in the last 15 years be wiped out before Trudeau is finished. I suspect the west is getting pretty tired of being treated like a doormat, change is coming...no doubt, and Alberta increasingly has nothing to lose in promoting the change.

 

[Jinentonix]

Alberta doesn't have to go anywhere to put the hurt on the federal government and entitled Quebec. There's already a plan to pull AB and SK out of CPP which is predicted to save them in the neighborhood of 25% a year on premiums, at the unfortunate expense of the fed and the rest of the country. A provincial police force, and greater provincial control over education would likely yield savings and promote autonomy as well for Alberta.

Also, if AB wants to send more crude through existing pipelines to make up economic shortfalls at the expense of refined product to BC, the tricky fact remains...Even though the courts have already determined that Alberta does not have authority or jurisdiction to dictate what is delivered through pipelines, what does rule of law really mean in this country anyway? It is becoming increasingly apparent that court injunctions are meaningless pieces of paper in this country that are unenforceable. If others can turn their back on law and order, what's stopping Alberta from doing the same thing to protect their economy?

The country is heading down a slippery slope, I can see trade wars and conflict between provinces being the future norm, and all of the gains with inter-provincial trade made in the last 15 years be wiped out before Trudeau is finished. I suspect the west is getting pretty tired of being treated like a doormat, change is coming...no doubt, and Alberta increasingly has nothing to lose in promoting the change.

The only problem with your existing pipelines approach is if Alberta were to separate, those pipelines would be running through a "foreign" country. A foreign country that would have no obligation whatsoever to allow those pipelines to continue operating within its borders. Alberta separating would be a lose/lose proposition.

 

[Mowich]

Wet'suwet'en members back to work on Coastal GasLink pipeline
​

The pipeline company has promised $1 billion in benefits, training and employment contracts to B.C. First Nations bands along the 670-km route.

At least two dozen Wet’suwet’en workers will be on the job today as Coastal GasLink restarts pipeline work along the contested Morice River Service Road in northern B.C.

The move came as two legal challenges were launched by pipeline opponents. One was from two Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs arguing the federal government’s approval of the Coastal GasLink pipeline was unconstitutional. The other was from protesters challenging the injunction used to end the blockade of the Port of Vancouver earlier this week.

The pipeline is intended to pump natural gas from northeastern B.C. to the LNG Canada export facility being built in Kitimat.

“This week will see the recommencement of construction activities in Wet’suwet’en territory and the return to work of many members of the Wet’suwet’en community,” Coastal GasLink, which is owned by Calgary-based TC Energy, said in a statement. “Members of the Wet’suwet’en community will be heavily involved in the upcoming spring and summer construction programs and the coming years as the project advances.”

The Coastal GasLink work site on the remote Morice River logging road southwest of Houston B.C. has become a flashpoint of Canada-wide protests over the past two months.

What started as a local blockade by some Wet’suwet’en members — primarily led by five of 13 Wet’suwet’en clan house chiefs opposed to the construction of the pipeline through their territory — has expanded to blockades in Metro Vancouver, Victoria, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. The chiefs are being supported by anti-climate-change, anti-capitalist and anti-poverty groups, and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs and the B.C. Green party.

The pipeline project is supported by five of six elected Wet’suwet’en band councils, representing a quarter of the B.C. First Nations bands that have signed letters of support for the pipeline in exchange for financial, employment and training benefits.

The company has promised $1 billion in benefits to First Nations along the 670-km route.

The five signatory bands that fall under the umbrella of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation are the Witset, Wet’suwet’en, Skin Tyee, Nee-Tahi-Buhn and the Ts’il Kaz Koh (Burns Lake Band).

Troy Young is a Witset member whose family business holds a number of contracts with Coastal GasLink for clearing and roadbuilding. His grandmother was a hereditary house chief.

“People in Canada have the right to protest. This is a democracy. It is unfortunate that they are protesting with only half the story being told,” Young told Postmedia News.

“I don’t feel the elected councils are being given a fair voice in this matter. From discussions I have had, the elected chiefs recognize that employment can be a multi-generational gain for the family. People working on a pipeline can send their children to school to provide for better opportunities in the future. The elected chiefs want to break the bondage of poverty that exists within our communities.”

A map showing the route of the Coastal GasLink project taken from a Dec. 16, 2019 project update issued by Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project and TC Energy. PNG


​

The Wet’suwet’en’s 22,000 square kilometre range is home to five clans, with 13 houses operating under those clans (some clans have three houses and some have two). Each house has a hereditary chief and wing chief.

As the controversy around the pipeline protests has deepened, divides among those Wet’suwet’en in favour and those against has deepened. According to a report in the Aboriginal news source APTN, a letter has been sent to those involved in the conflict calling for a rare all-clans meeting.

Andrew George — wing chief of the Grizzly house — told APTN “what currently is going on does not reflect the true governance of the Wet’suwet’en, on both sides. We are afraid something bad might happen.”

Coastal GasLink said it “will redouble efforts to engage with the hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en and with the Unist’ot’en in search of a peaceful, long term resolution that benefits the Wet’suwet’en people.”

Unist’ot’en is one of the three houses of the Gilseyhu or Bull Frog clan.

Wet’suwet’en First Nation bands contacted by Postmedia News said that they were preparing a joint press release on the renewal of pipeline work and would not comment at this time.

vancouversun.com/news/local-news/wetsuweten-members-back-to-work-on-coastal-gaslink-pipeline

 

[Mowich]

Wet'suwet'en operators gain valuable experience

​

For Troy Young, the greatest benefit of training dozens of Wet’suwet’en workers as heavy equipment operators for the Coastal GasLink pipeline will be felt in a decade as those workers are spread out across the province.

Young, a Wet’suwet’en member and general manager of Kyah Resources Inc., is one of several primary contractors completing clearing and road-building work for the 670 km underground gas pipeline being built to service the LNG Canada plant under construction in Kitimat.

Kyah Resources is a joint venture between Young’s private company and the Witset First Nation - one of the five Wet’suwet’en bands that have signed access and benefits agreements with Coastal GasLink.

The only Wet’suwet’en band not to sign is the Hagwilget, in the northernmost part of the nation’s 22,000 square kilometre territory.

“This is a great opportunity for people who have skills, but don’t have a huge amount of time on the machines, to gain that time and become employable pretty much anywhere in B.C.,” said Young, 49, speaking from Houston B.C.

“If you don’t have the resumé that says you have three years running Cats and you go for a job as a Cat operator people look and say they don’t want to train you. Here we have an opportunity to train up to 100 people who are going to be able to work anywhere. If you want to be an equipment operator getting time in the seat is the most important thing that can happen.”

Young also sees the advantage First Nations machine operators will have on work sites where they are skilled and not general workers.

“It’s a big equalizer to show that you have skills to operate stuff.”

Young is among Wet’suwet’en members starting to speak out as anti-pipeline protests spread across Canada in support of a group of Wet’suwet’en hereditary house chiefs who are opposed to the routing of the pipeline across Wet’suwet’en traditional territory.

They say they, and not the elected band councils, are in charge of the traditional lands, which are not in reserves.

The project is supported by the provincial and federal governments. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he would meet with those hereditary chiefs in opposition, as protesters in Metro Vancouver occupied Attorney General David Eby’s office, forced the eastbound WestCoast Express to a standstill and threatened to shutdown government buildings in Victoria on Friday.

Tiffany Murray, Coastal GasLink’s director of Indigenous relations, said that last December the company’s contractors employed 1,100 workers, of which 400 were Indigenous - mostly from the 20 B.C. bands that have signed agreements. Murray said that number would balloon by the summer, as more work camps were built.

The company has promised to spend $1 billion of its $6.6 billion budget providing direct funding, employment and training opportunities for affiliated First Nations.

“As we continue our clearing works we will have more of our workforce accommodations in by spring and summer. Then things will ramp up,” she said.

There are currently six work camps along the route, including Camp 9A, where Young’s workers are staying and which is at the centre of the current controversy.

In late December, workers staying at the camp were asked to leave by a group of Wet’suwet’en hereditary leaders and they complied. Coastal GasLink then got a Supreme Court of B.C. injunction demanding the workers have access to the campsite and that any blockades be removed.

A deep and unusual cold set in and both sides were at a stalemate. Workers were allowed back to the camp for a day to make sure the cold would not damage property.

Last week, after weeks of standoff the RCMP moved in, demolishing the blockades and arresting protesting Wet’suwet’en members.

Young said Camp 9A can house 120 workers. He expects his workers to take around three years to complete the project, essentially cutting a between 30- to 50-metre wide swath through the forest, at which point they will meet up with Haisla Nation work crews cutting east from Kitimat.

“Once the pipeline is in the ground, there is still maintenance work that needs to take place. We will have trained people here so it makes sense we will do the work,” he said.

He also expected there to be more pipeline work in the future, including the Pacific Trail Pipeline Project.

www.princegeorgecitizen.com/news/local-news/wet-suwet-en-operators-gain-valuable-experience-1.24076546

 

[Decapoda]

The only problem with your existing pipelines approach is if Alberta were to separate, those pipelines would be running through a "foreign" country. A foreign country that would have no obligation whatsoever to allow those pipelines to continue operating within its borders. Alberta separating would be a lose/lose proposition.

I agree with you, Alberta isn't going anywhere...as my post clearly implied.

However, if you want to follow the logic chain you've laid out and imagine Alberta separating, it's worth noting that pipelines aren't the only things running through what would be a "foreign country". Roads, rail, and air would also be affected. Typically foreign countries have economic trade and access agreements which allows a foreign country access to the airways and terrestrial routes. These agreements are based on negotiation between foreign entities that each side determines fair. This negotiating power would be an immense step forward for Alberta, which currently has basically non and is forced to take whatever Trudeau tells them is the deal. It could get quite expensive for Trudeau's Canada to access the West coast under a unified and separate Alberta. As I said...purely hypothetical.

 

[Mowich]

Coastal GasLink goes back to work at Houston site
​

As Coastal GasLink (CGL) activity at its worksite near Houston is ramping up again this week, the RCMP are dismantling their temporary compound at the Houston Community Hall.

Sgt. Janelle Shoihet, a spokesperson for E Division (B.C.) confirmed the additional officers sent to Houston for the enforcement of a B.C. Supreme Court injunction granting the company access to the site are withdrawing.

The RCMP Community Industry Safety Office, a mobile detachment set up at the 27 kilometre mark of the Morice West Forest Service Road will remain in place.

“We will continue to man the C-ISO as per our commitment made last year and monitor the roadway to ensure that it remains free and clear of any obstructions,” Shoihet said in an email.

In a press release earlier this week, the RCMP announced it had removed their access control point and the exclusion zone.

“The right to peaceful, safe and lawful protest, and freedom of expression, are important parts of Canada’s democracy,” the statement said. “However, blocking roadways is both dangerous and illegal. While we respect the right to demonstrate peacefully, police of local jurisdiction will enforce the law with sensitivity.”

While the road is now clear, CGL said it will continue to abide by an access protocol at the Unist’ot’en healing lodge, which includes speed management and providing advance notice of Coastal GasLink workers who will cross the Morice River Bridge while entering Unist’ot’en traditional territory.

A new poll by the Angus Reid Institute released this morning indicates just slightly more than half of Canadians (51 per cent) support the project, while 36 per cent say they oppose the pipeline.

The survey also asked if respondents support the Wet’suwet’en solidarity demonstrators who have been blocking ports, railways and roads across the country and disrupting the legislature in Victoria since the enforcement began. Two in five Canadians (39 per cent) said they support the protests. Support was highest in B.C. and Quebec and among younger women and lower income earners. It was lowest among older men and high income earners.

Despite significant support for the protesters, the vast majority of Canadians believed the pipeline will be built with 57 per cent saying it would likely be slowed down by the opposition. Only nine per cent said it will likely never happen.

Meanwhile, the Wet’suwet’en Nation is holding extremely rare all clans meetings. The first took place last night in Witset to be followed by additional meetings on the north and south coasts to include off-reserve members.

www.houston-today.com/news/coastal-gaslink-goes-back-to-work-at-houston-site/

 

[taxme]

MacDougall: Canada’s resource impasse calls for a ‘Just watch me’ moment
We have indeed reached the boiling point; there is a fundamental – and unresolved – tension between resource development, environmental protection and the rule of law.
Is Justin Trudeau a hostage or a leader?
Given the four-term MP from Papineau has twice earned the title of prime minister, the answer should be obvious. But the drift plaguing his second mandate suggests hostage is becoming the more apposite description. Trouble is multiplying across our land and Trudeau isn’t even around, let alone in command of his brief.
The prime minister is certainly not in control of the agenda. While #ShutDownCanada activists have been busy paralyzing legislatures, bridges and railways across Canada in protest of British Columbia’s Coastal GasLink pipeline, Trudeau has been overseas shelling out money in search of support for Canada’s United Nations Security Council bid. Trudeau has apparently decided that a temporary seat at the end of an increasinglyineffective table is a better use of his time than taking his country off the boil.
And Canada has indeed reached the boiling point; there is a fundamental – and unresolved – tension between resource development, environmental protection and the rule of law. If legally approved and First Nations-supported projects such as Coastal GasLink can’t go ahead without lawless disruption, then Canada’s future prosperity will suffer. Canada is either a country of clear regulatory processes and enforceable laws or it isn’t. There is no middle ground, and Trudeau should be the one to say so.
Were it just GasLink causing the stink, the problem might eventually go away. But the prime minister is also faced with another potential foul smell in the form of the recently approved Teck Resources Frontier oilsands project. The jacked-up climate crowd the prime minister depends on to keep him in office isn’t likely to accept that any oilsands project could ever be beneficial to Canada, no matter how many regulatory hurdles it manages to clear. But if the prime minister says “no” to Frontier’s potential job-creation in the job-hungry province of Alberta, there is every chance the heretofore fringe #Wexit movement will metastasize into the mainstream.
The jacked-up climate crowd the prime minister depends on to keep him in office isn’t likely to accept that any oilsands project could ever be beneficial to Canada, no matter how many regulatory hurdles it manages to clear.
And so it’s time for Trudeau to pick a lane. Will it be resources and the rule of law? Or will it be mob rule, demobilization of the oilsands, and the attendant national unity battle?
If past is prologue, Trudeau will look to punt. And while the prime minister isn’t going to pull out the company credit card to buy up Frontier like he did the Trans Mountain expansion – at least not yet – he does have the option to delay. One even suspects the Alberta-born Chrystia Freeland is already being lined up to catch that particular hospital pass.
But what if Trudeau went another way and took the chance to make Frontier and Coastal GasLink his career-defining moment? The Wet’suwet’en protesters aren’t the FLQ but the time has still come for Trudeau to have his “Just watch me” moment. Either Trudeau sees off the vocal minority and approves the resource projects that meet his strengthened standards, or he accepts that further development is a planet killer and states that truth plainly, despite the huge short-term cost to the Canadian economy.
A clear choice would put Trudeau on the front foot and give his government a sense of direction. Forget the Security Council; it's at home that Trudeau will define his legacy. And while it's not fair to compare Trudeau pere et fils, it's hard to imagine Pierre Trudeau being afraid to take on an unruly mob, let alone be held hostage by one.
Whichever way he ultimately blows, Justin Trudeau must accept that, five years into his tenure, he can no longer please both crowds.
An approval on Frontier will be the final straw for climate alarmists, no matter how thorough the approval process has been. And they will never come back. But if Trudeau goes the other way and shuts Teck down, as at least one downtown Toronto Liberal MP would like him to do, then no amount of rhetoric will be able to convince investors looking to Canada that their ducats will be safe.
It is an unenviable choice but, hey, that's leadership. In politics there are few easy calls and no pleasing everybody.
ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/macdougall-canadas-resource-impasse-calls-for-a-just-watch-me-moment

Impeach Trudeau. Works for me.

 

[Mowich]

Rex Murphy: Climate zealots have taken Canada hostage. And our PM is missing in action
​

I’m familiar with absentee landlords from grade school history. The concept of an absentee prime minister is a brand new one to me.

Justin Trudeau has been a week now waltzing around Africa while, day by day back here in carbon-tax Canada, the country is seizing up. For the same past seven days apparently, Canada has been under the administration of what the media insists on calling “anti-pipeline” forces.

Anti-pipeline is far too narrow. These are the anti-industry, anti-energy, anti-Alberta, climate-change save-the-worlders who have been harassing the country for years. The difference is in the past week they’ve upped their opposition, and from one end of the country to another decided to muscle their way to a victory by a storm of blockades, protests, traffic obstruction, and in the case of Victoria, B.C., actually shutting down the people’s legislature.

Meantime PM I’m-out-of-the-country-again sends bulletins of feeble non-assurance from sunny Senegal. And such bulletins they are.

“PM urges quick resolution …” As VIA Rail shuts down, and his own deputy prime minister is denied entrance to the Halifax mayor’s office, the globe-trotter PM “urges quick resolution.”

When there is a national crisis, and there is a national crisis, to whom do we justly look for a resolution? Why the prime minister of the nation. Instead of leadership in this case however, we get a statement that surely implies he thinks the “resolution” is in some other hands. Further in the same statement — and I love this — he called for “all parties to dialogue.” Whenever in any really tense situation a politician hauls out the infinitive “to dialogue,” you may take it to the bank he has not a clue about how to handle it.

What’s “to dialogue?” Is it defying court injunctions? Is it barring your deputy prime minister from pursuing her duties? Do you want to have a chat about shutting down a provincial legislature? Bringing the commerce of a nation to a standstill by rail blockades?

Threatening a great energy project that has gone through all the tests and assessments and which holds vast promise of economic benefits and jobs? Watching the police forces of the nation stand by in perfect impotence before eco-radicals? Making a joke out of the so-highly-touted rule of law while the country seizes up under pressure from zealots?

How did Canada get to this point? Easy. The elevation of the doomsday cult of global warming, the insistence that Canada has some unique and precious role in saving the planet, the hostility to the oil industry that is the logical extension of that attitude has given vast licence to anti-oil types to more or less do what they want. And now they are. The steadfast refusal to defend the industry, always bending to the other side to placate the protesters, the demonstrators; muttering on constantly about carbon dioxide “pollution;” caving in on every occasion there is an interruption in a legal development: all of these things were a bugle call to those who like to think their cause is above normal politics, above normal protest, and most of all, as we have seen this week, above the courts and the legislatures.

Environmentalists think they are a group apart. If 10 plumbers shut down a railway, or if loggers shut down the B.C. legislature, or if oil workers decided to “shut down Canada,” the RCMP and every security force in the nation would round them up, clap on the handcuffs and stow them away in a cell in a jiffy. But a few native bands, and the always available professional protesters who we have seen active since the days of the Seattle riots, decide to ride on the oil issue, and everyone in authority stands aside mute and fearful.

And our always itinerant prime minister, on another vainglorious question — this time for a useless seat on the useless UN Security Council — urges “all sides to resolve this as quickly as possible.”

Meantime we are days away from the most significant policy decision this government will make — presuming it remains the government, which in the present circumstances is an open question — the Teck oilsands mine.

Should that decision be negative, should Alberta once again be denied its right to pursue its economic interests, should a $20-billion investment be strangled in the interests of our sacred “Paris commitments,” then I fear that in at least a part of the country the protests and disruptions we have seen this week will be a timid display compared with the anger that will come out of the West.

nationalpost.com/opinion/rex-murphy-climate-zealots-have-taken-canada-hostage-and-our-pm-is-missing-in-action

 

[Jinentonix]

It would hurt the remainder of Canada far more than it would hurt Alberta.

It's not about who would hurt more, it's about the fact that both sides would end up losing, and losing big. Albexit is a move that would be equivalent to cutting off your nose to spite your face.

 

[taxslave]

Les Leyne: Balancing right to protest and rule of law is a tightrope walk
​

The reason Premier John Horgan ducked all public comment about the legislature blockade was because he was too steamed to stand in front of a microphone.
He didn’t say it in so many words, but that was the impression left Wednesday after a lengthy news conference in the aftermath of the unprecedented attempt to shut down the seat of government.
He had cancelled a scheduled media appearance and instead issued a news release late in that very tense day after hundreds of protesters jostled and blocked workers trying to enter the legislature.
“I chose not to talk directly to you yesterday because of my personal feelings at the time,” he told reporters during an extended after-action report.
It was a lot more restrained than if it had been conducted in the heat of the day-long shoving match.
Because they were “strong” feelings, held by many, he said.
There was one brief glimpse of what might have been. Asked about the role of Victoria city councillor Ben Isitt, who attended and supported the protest and at one point criticized his own police department’s approach to it, Horgan said: “My thoughts on that individual are not printable.”
But after sleeping on it for a night, Horgan decided to try to walk the tightrope between supporting the fundamental right to protest and recognizing the rule of law.
It’s a tough balancing act and isn’t going to get any easier, as more protest blockades appear to be in the works, as early as this Friday. They’re going to push him steadily toward emphasizing the need to recognize rule of law, if Wednesday’s appearance was any indication.
Not that he has much choice.
The blockade was unacceptable to him and the vast majority of British Columbians, he said. Peaceful demonstrations are a fundamental right, “but to have a group of people say to others: ‘You are illegitimate, you are not allowed in here, you are somehow a sellout to the values of Canadians’ is just plain wrong.”
He stressed how unprecedented the attempt to shut down the legislature was, compared to the protests he routinely used to attend in the past.
“Game-changer,” was the phrase he settled on to describe it.
Horgan said he is not responsible for security or law enforcement but was “sincerely apologetic” to the legislature staff who had to endure the blockade.
“These are extraordinary times, these are extraordinary events.”
Horgan also dwelled on the Indigenous rights aspect of the pipeline protest, where it’s linked to some hereditary Wet’suwet’en chiefs’ opposition to the line, despite widespread support from elected Indigenous leaders.
He said: “I don’t believe for a minute, knowing Indigenous peoples broadly speaking as I do, that what they viewed yesterday in their name was how they want to go forward.”
Coming just a few months after the legislature unanimously adopted the UN declaration on Indigenous rights as the new template for all future dealings with First Nations, the demonstrations raise fresh new questions about how it’s all going to work.
In the premier’s view, “the only way forward is through hard work and commitment to each other.” Horgan also appeared sensitive to any criticism that he didn’t take any obvious action to put an end to the blockade. “I don’t want to live in a society where politicians direct police to take action against other citizens without appropriate reason for doing so. That’s why we have courts. That’s why injunctions are sought.”
He was outlining due process in the abstract, but it may become a reality.
Just So You Know: The NDP is wracked with conflicting emotions on the protests, given their previous warm relationships with some of the anti-pipeline factions. The two-member Green caucus — bullied like everyone else on the way in Tuesday — was profoundly troubled by the showdown, too. But they’re less conflicted, because they opposed LNG from the start and still do.
Green MLAs Adam Olsen and Sonia Fursteneau — and newly independent Andrew Weaver — will be watching the government’s response closely if the attempted shutdowns continue. Their support is still crucial to the government.
Right to protest versus rule of law isn’t the only tightrope Horgan is walking.
www.timescolonist.com/opinion/columnists/les-leyne-balancing-right-to-protest-and-rule-of-law-is-a-tightrope-walk-1.24075245

Not a tightrope at all. Those that don't obey the law get their heads busted. Then charged with terrorism. Protests legitimately happen in front of government offices without interfering with the business of the country or town.

 

[Jinentonix]

This is precisely why the Liberal Government should stop dicking around, and giving preferential treatment to Quebec and Ontario. When the Federal Government sticks their neck out for Eastern Canadian companies, but remains indifferent when Western Canadian based companies depart for other nations, it sews the seeds to alienation and separatist movements.

Canada needs ALberta far more than Alberta needs Canada. The Americans would likely side with Alberta in any kind of political dispute.

Well of course they would. Who do ya think is behind all the anti-oil protests in Canada? The bigger the squeeze they put on our oil industry, the less likely Canada will get any regular customers for its oil outside of the US. To put it another way, the US has 10X the population of Canada but only 1/7 of the proven oil reserves that Canada has. They can't keep warring with Mid-East countries over oil so they've been going with an attempt at a non-hostile "takeover" of our oil. It's a gambit to gain sole (besides us) access to the 3rd largest proven oil reserves in the world.


You'll notice that American organizations involved in interfering with our oil industry aren't interfering in Norway's oil industry. Or the UK's, Mexico's, Brazil's or even their own. Yet those countries are allowed to have viable oil industries.

 

[B00Mer]

They want to shut down Canada!!

Start by cutting their welfare checks and money to Indian reserves..

Get a job like the rest of us you lazy welfare grabbing motherfu*kers..

 

[Twin_Moose]

Eastern Ontario rail blockade still in place as provincial police keep watch

TYENDINAGA MOHAWK TERRITORY, Ont. — Members of the Mohawk First Nation are to meet Saturday with Federal Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller at a CN rail crossing in Ontario.
"The CN Rail stoppage is in its 9th day since Mohawks demanded that no trains cross their Territory at Tyendinaga until the RCMP leave Wet'suwet'en Territory, where the government is using the militarized police force to escort Coastal Gas Link employees who are building a new fracked gas pipeline," a Mohawk news release said Friday.
"Federal Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller has requested to "Polish the Silver Covenant Chain," one of the original agreements between Mohawks and the Crown, to address the issues that both Canada and the Mohawks have.
"Tomorrow, he will be arriving at the Wyman Rd CN Rail crossing at 10 a.m. The Mohawks have agreed to meet with him."
Miller said the meeting stems from an invitation he made to some Mohawk leaders on Wednesday night in regards to the situation at Tyendinaga.
"I agreed to a meeting this Saturday at a location of their choosing in Tyendinaga," Miller said on Twitter. "I can confirm that they have agreed to it and that I will be present."
Miller said he reached out to Mohawk leaders Kanenhariyo, Chief Maracle and regional Chief Archibald.
Meanwhile, police kept a watchful eye on a handful of protesters blocking a major stretch of railway in eastern Ontario as political pressure mounted on the provincial force to take more decisive action.
The blockade in the heart of the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory near Belleville, Ont., was first erected last Thursday by community members showing solidarity with the hereditary chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation in British Columbia who oppose the development of a liquefied natural gas project that crosses their traditional territory.
The Ontario blockade, combined with similar efforts in B.C. and Quebec, resulted in Via Rail suspending passenger train service nationwide and Canadian National Railway Co. shutting down freight operations for Eastern Canada.
Ontario Provincial Police defended its handling of the situation, saying officers have been in talks with the protesters throughout the week — a move that's in line with the force's framework on resolving conflicts with Indigenous communities.
"The proper use of police discretion is a valid, appropriate approach to de-escalating situations such as this," spokesman Bill Dickson said in a statement. "The proper exercise of police discretion should not be confused with a lack of enforcement."
A number of court injunctions have been handed down in a bid to remove the protesters, but most have been ignored. When one such document was delivered to the Ontario demonstrators over the weekend, it was set ablaze on the train tracks.
About a dozen protesters milled around the rail line on Friday afternoon after unfurling colourful banners bearing Indigenous symbols. Some community members stopped by to survey the scene or offer support, with one family of four making repeated trips to bring bread, hummus and other food to the demonstrators.
At one point, two police officers walked over to the barricade and held a brief conversation with the protesters.
A growing number of business leaders and industry groups called for government or police intervention in the shutdowns, and federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer took up the cry on Friday.
"Law enforcement should enforce the law," he said. "We have court orders, we have court injunctions. They need to be respected."
But Transport Minister Marc Garneau said the situation is more nuanced, acknowledging the fraught history between Ontario Provincial Police and Indigenous communities may call for a more delicate approach.
"Also remember that they have to take into account some history here when we're talking about what happened at Ipperwash," he said, referring to a violent 1995 standoff that resulted in the death of Indigenous activist Dudley George. "It is their decision about how to approach that."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed, noting that police forces have the right to use their discretion when addressing such situations.
"We are not the kind of country where politicians tell police what to do in operational matters," Trudeau said at a press conference in Germany.
The OPP came in for a significant share of blame for the Ipperwash standoff, according to the results of a public inquiry into the matter. Commissioner Sidney Linden found that "cultural insensitivity and racism" among OPP officers played a role in how the situation unfolded.
The framework currently in place was developed as a direct result of George's death and explicitly calls for a measured response that takes Indigenous perspectives into account.
"It is the role of the OPP and all of its employees to make every effort prior to a critical incident to understand the issues and to protect the rights of all involved parties throughout the cycle of conflict," the framework reads.
Dickson said that framework will continue to inform the OPP's handling of the eastern Ontario blockade, which has involved no arrests so far.
"The OPP respects the right of everyone to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, but we also recognize the rights of the general public, local residents and businesses to a safe environment," he said.

Ford is being smart about this IMO, leave it to the Feds. to deal with a Federal problem, he'll take a little heat but the Libs. will look pathetic

 

[Twin_Moose]

Trudeau won’t force end to railway blockades; Scheer tells protesters to ‘check their privilege’

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged those demonstrating in solidarity with hereditary chiefs of Wet'suwet'en Nation to ease up blockades along rail lines on Friday, but motioned that the federal government does not have plans to order RCMP action.
"We are not a country where politicians can order the police to do something, we are a country that has confidence in its police forces and allows them to do their work in scope of these blockade," Trudeau said, while speaking to reporters in Germany.

Trudeau said blockades that have led to disruptions for Canadian railway services have made it a "difficult week" for the country. Blockades began in support of the B.C. First Nation's hereditary chiefs, who oppose the construction of a pipeline through their land.
Meanwhile, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said those demonstrating in solidarity with hereditary chiefs of Wet'suwet'en Nation should "check their privilege" on Friday while speaking to reporters in Ottawa.
Scheer called on the federal government to take more definitive action in stopping blockades.
"These protesters, these activists have the luxury of spending days at a time at a blockade, but they need to check their privilege," he said. "They need to check their privilege and let people whose jobs depend on the railway system — small businesses, farmers — do their jobs."
Scheer said protesters are holding the Canadian economy "hostage."
CN and Via Rail have suspended operations on large sections of their networks in response to blockades such as the one in the Belleville, Ont., area, and an injunction was granted to remove protesters. The train operators have cautioned that such disruptions could pose risks to various goods and services across the country, and lead to layoffs.
"We cannot allow a small number of activists to hold our economy hostage and threaten thousands of jobs," Scheer said.

He added that the federal government needs to be more forceful in enforcing injunctions handed out by courts over the protests.
"I believe it's time for the law to be enforced," he added. "We have court orders, we have court injunctions; they need to be respected."
Earlier on Friday, federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau also called the protests "illegal."
However, he did not say the federal government would instruct the RCMP to begin enforcing injunctions on solidarity protesters.
"The federal government, along with [Indigenous Services] Minister [Marc] Miller, will be engaging with the Indigenous leaders in that region with the idea of getting those blockades removed," he said as he headed to the discussions.
The minister is meeting with his provincial and territorial counterparts as well as representatives of national Indigenous organizations and stressed that he hopes there will be peaceful resolutions to the blockade disputes.
Garneau said freedom of expression and the right to peaceful protest are among the most cherished of rights but added that he is "deeply concerned" about the disruption of rail services.
Garneau also held similar concerns as Scheer on the stoppage of train services.
"But it is about people's jobs and livelihoods and about the transport of key supplies like food, propane, heating oil and chemicals for water treatment, agricultural products for export and so many other products," he said.

READ MORE: Average Wet’suwet’en people caught in pipeline dispute crossfire, says wing chief

Speaking earlier on Friday, Trudeau also said there are no easy answers to the dispute. The prime minister said the path forward is “fraught with challenges and obstacles to overcome.”
“You need to know we have failed our Indigenous Peoples over generations, over centuries. And there is no quick fix to it,” Trudeau said, adding that all parties must move towards reconciliation.
“We also are, obviously, a country of laws. And making sure that those laws are enforced, even as there is, of course, freedom to demonstrate free and to protest,” he said.
The blockades began last week after RCMP enforced an injunction against Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs and their supporters, who were blocking construction of the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline, a key part of the $40-billion LNG Canada export project.
Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs say the company does not have consent to build on the unceded territory. The chiefs assert title to a vast 22,000-square-kilometre area and say band councils only have authority over reserve lands.
Meanwhile, Coastal GasLink says it has signed agreements with all 20 elected band councils along the pipeline route.

 

[petros]

...And police are looking for the driver of the truck so they can arrest him. Meanwhile, citizens who are completely fed up and had enough of watching police do nothing about an illegal blockade take the initiative and move pallets and debris off the road, and they get arrested for it. WTF is going on in this country??

We all have the same powers as the Police. The only difference is they get paid.

They can be moved using "reasonable force".

 

[petros]

What Canada needs is a "producers strike". Lets show them a world without diesel by parking the tractors for a year.

I wonder how many protestors it takes to pull an 80ft air seeder?

 

[Twin_Moose]

Failing to act is encouraging a lot more of this in the future, as well as more financing for more economic disruption in our country.

 

[petros]

https://twitter.com/i/status/1226597324664836103

 

[petros]

Failing to act is encouraging a lot more of this in the future, as well as more financing for more economic disruption in our country.

Like I say, let's give them a world without diesel. Nobody can put a meal on their table without it.

 

[petros]

Andrew George Jr. is a wing chief, or secondary leader, with Gidimt’en (Grizzly House), which is a part of the Wet’suwet’en Bear Clan. According to an APTN report, he is the voice calling for an all-clan meeting.

In a statement issued Friday morning, he said the pipeline dispute has gotten out of control on all sides.

“The recent conflict between the RCMP and the professional protesters who wrongfully use Wet’suwet’en ancestry as the means to advance their agenda are putting Wet’suwet’en community members at risk,” George wrote.

George alleged there were also “protesters bullying Wet’suwet’en elders to acquire hereditary chief names.”

He also raised concerns of pressure and bullying tactics on the side of pipeline supporters, including “retaliation from elected Indian Act band council towards community members and elders who do not agree with their unilateral decisions.”

READ MORE: CN Rail blockade in northern B.C. taken down as province, feds agree to meeting with chiefs

Adding greater concern to the situation, George wrote, was growing racial tension between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people amid what he described as the province’s “decision to veto the 1997 Gisdayway-Delgamuukw court ruling.”

That watershed Supreme Court of Canada ruling affirmed the existence of Indigenous rights and title, along with the legitimate existence of pre-colonial forms of government.