LandKeepers News Archive
No Means No: First Nations Opposition to Enbridge Pipeline Is Growing and Unequivocal
January 21 2010 | Media Releases
January 21, 2010
Online animation visualizes First Nations opposition along proposed Enbridge pipeline route; pipeline is bringing First Nations together to protect their lands and waters.
VANCOUVER & SMITHERS, Jan. 21 — A new online animation shows growing First Nations opposition to Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Pipeline, a project that would cross more than fifty First Nations communities and one-thousand streams and rivers. All this in a bid to bring tar sands oil from Alberta to the coast of British Columbia where it would be loaded on to super tankers bound for Asia.
Featuring quotes of opposition from First Nations leaders, as well as animated oil spills and the sound of a traditional Wet’suwet’en battle song, the animation is the first to visualize opposition to the proposed pipeline.
“Our territory represents a large portion of the proposed pipeline route and there’s no way we’re going to allow it,” said David Luggi, Chief of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council, one of the leaders quoted in the video. “The only thing Enbridge investors can bank on with this project is strong opposition.”
The pipeline is seen by critics as a source of bad press for Enbridge and a potential legal quagmire for the company and the Canadian federal government. “We will not allow any project to proceed that infringes the constitutionally protected rights of our people,” said Dolores Pollard, Chief Councillor of the Haisla Nation, whose territory includes the pipeline project’s proposed super tanker port in Kitimat. “Sooner or later, that’s a lesson Enbridge and the federal government are going to learn, either in the court of public opinion or a court of law.”
“We’ve told Enbridge many times that this pipeline will not go through our territory, but they seem to have a hard time listening,” said Alphonse Gagnon, Wet’suwet’en hereditary chief. “The only good thing about this pipeline is that it is bringing First Nations together to protect our lands and waters.”
The video is part of an online advocacy campaign aimed at pressuring Enbridge to pull out of the project and allows viewers to send emails directly to CEO, Patrick Daniel, asking him to keep his word that the company doesn’t want to be, “…involved in a project that is opposed and of concern to others,” a statement Daniel made last year at a shareholder meeting in Toronto.
The video, which was produced by the Office of the Wet’suwet’en and environmental group ForestEthics, can be viewed and shared online at: http://wetsuweten.com or http://www.forestethics.org/tarsandsfreebc
For more information:
Alphonse Gagnon, Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief – 250-847-9673
David deWit, Natural Resources Manager, Office of the Wet’suwet’en – 250-847-3630, ext.232
David Luggi, Carrier Sekani Tribal Council Chief – 250-640-6622 (cell)
Dolores Pollard, Chief Councillor Haisla Nation – 250-639-1595 (cell)
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