March 30 Global Day of Action Sees Climate Crime Circus Come to Town

by Rising Tide – Vancouver Coast Salish Territories

Vancouver, March 30:  Chevron’s north Burnaby refinery was blockaded for three hours today by activists who occupied the access road and prevented tanker trucks from entering or leaving the site.

Envoy to deal with First Nations concerns on pipelines

Vancouver lawyer Doug Eyford to submit preliminary report to Harper by June

CBC News/The Canadian Press, Mar 19, 2013

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has named an envoy to deal with aboriginal opposition to resource development in Alberta and British Columbia.

That’s where First Nations opposition to the Northern Gateway pipeline has thrown the future of the project into question.

Gateway showdown might dwarf Idle No More

By Will Braun, Winnipeg Free Press, March 4, 2013

Chief Theresa Spence is back home in Attawapiskat and Idle No More has faded from view after an impressive run in the headlines. Another aboriginal movement, however, continues to build toward the biggest First Nations stand-off in a generation — the fight against the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline.

Shell consortium gets nod for 25-year LNG export licence

The Canadian Press, Feb 25, 2013

The federal government has approved a 25-year export licence for shipping liquefied natural gas from a West Coast terminal proposed by a consortium headed by Shell.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver says the approval for LNG Canada Development Inc. is a milestone in British Columbia’s plans for a trillion-dollar LNG sector.

Coastal First Nations group pulls out of Enbridge hearings

Relaxation of regulations, lack of ‘straight answers’ harms legitimacy of process

By Gordon Hamilton, Vancouver Sun, February 5, 2013

Coastal First Nations has pulled out of a critical Northern Gateway hearing on Enbridge’s marine oil spill response plans, saying the hearings have drained the organization’s financial resources and are providing few answers.

“We might as well keep our powder dry and save it for court,” CFN executive director Art Sterritt said Monday, expressing dissatisfaction over the cost of attending the hearings and over what he called “a difficult time” getting answers from Northern Gateway applicant Enbridge.

Aboriginal Business Elite Promote Pipelines as part of ‘Energy Corridor’

First nations carving out an energy bridge to the B.C. coast

Nathan Vanderklippe, The Globe and Mail, Feb 5, 2013

Calvin Helin doing power point presentation in his button blanket regalia.

For the Canadian energy industry desperate to pump oil and natural gas through British Columbia, the single greatest obstacle has been the dozens of first nations fighting to ensure pipelines are never built.

Now, some of the leading figures in Canada’s aboriginal business community are offering a bridge across the province’s difficult political landscape. They have formed Eagle Spirit Energy Holdings Ltd., a company quietly working to create a first nations-owned energy corridor across northern B.C. that could serve as a physical line across the province to move natural gas, electricity and oil.

Ottawa gives nod to west-to-east oil pipeline

Pipeline could benefit Irving refinery in Saint John

Massive trucks haul oil-laden sand in Alberta Tar Sands.

CBC News/The Canadian Press, Feb 2, 2013

The federal government is firming up its support of two projects that would see oil from Alberta piped to Atlantic Canada.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said he gave a tentative nod to one proposal in a meeting with industry giant Irving Oil.

Protest targets Enbridge hearings in Kelowna

Public barred once again from community hearings

Some of the protesters in Kelowna on Jan 28, 2013.

CBC News, Jan 28, 2013

About 200 people demonstrated outside the Northern Gateway Joint Review Panel Hearings today in Kelowna after the public was once again barred from the community hearings because of unspecified safety concerns.

Feds clear way for LNG export plant on First Nations reserve at Kitimat B.C.

The Canadian Press, Jan 22, 2013

Members of Unis’tot’en camp, November 2012, blocking access to Pacific Trails Pipeline surveyors.

The federal government has cleared the way for a liquefied natural gas export plant on the B.C. coast.

Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Minister John Duncan says new regulations will allow the Kitimat LNG plant to be built on the Haisla First Nation’s Bees Indian Reserve.

Oily Chiefs, Idle No More, and the AFN

by Zig Zag, Warrior Publications, January 17, 2013

To fully understand the phenomenon of Idle No More, you must imagine two parallel universes. In one, INM is comprised of good-hearted grassroots Native people responding to a call to oppose Bill C-45 and to protect the land and water of their traditional territories. In the other, however, are chiefs using the mobilization to achieve their political & economic agenda, an agenda that includes partnering with corporations seeking to exploit oil and gas resources on reserve lands.