Read the letter by Camp Cloud's supporters to Mayor Derek Corrigan and Burnaby councillors

by Charlie Smith on July 21st, 2018 at 1:10 PM

1 of 1 2 of 1

The City of Burnaby issued an eviction notice on July 18 to demonsrators at a "resistance camp" set up to oppose the Kinder Morgan pipeline project.

Camp Cloud is located at 8098 Shellmont Street. Below, you can read a letter that the camp's supporters have sent to Mayor Derek Corrigan and Burnaby councillors:

July 20th, 2018

To Mayor Corrigan and the Council of the City of Burnaby,

This letter is in response to the eviction notice the City of Burnaby issued to Camp Cloud on Wednesday, July 18th, 2018. We are writing to challenge this process on numerous grounds and demand that the City of Burnaby rescind this eviction immediately.

Camp Cloud, a tiny resistance camp, fuelled by donated firewood and repurposed building materials, is opposing a corporation which is worth 13.7 billion dollars and known for its flagrant disregard of law and life. The City of Burnaby cannot, in good faith, move forward with enforcement of bylaws on Camp Cloud without enforcing the same on Kinder Morgan.

The eviction notice was issued on the grounds that Camp Cloud poses a safety risk and because of “health and environmental concerns.” In light of Kinder Morgan’s track record of oil spills and unlawful activity, this eviction notice is ignorant at best. Camp Cloud exists to protect communities from more of this. Your eviction notice ignores the health and environmental concerns of constructing a pipeline with the capacity to transport upwards of 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

https://twitter.com/JustinBrakeNews/status/1020662395989979136

Recently, Kinder Morgan has been granted permission by the National Energy Board to keep its emergency response plans secret, despite reports from the Burnaby Fire Department and from Simon Fraser University which detail the significant safety risks posed by the proposed tank farm expansion. This emergency response plan directly impacts hundreds of school children in local neighbourhoods and residents of Burnaby have no information about emergency preparedness in the likely event of a spill. If the City of Burnaby wants to protect community safety, it should push for the release of these plans to the public rather than threaten Camp Cloud, a group composed of local concerned residents.

The use of law enforcement to remove Camp Cloud is itself a safety risk. If the events of November 2014 are any indication, the RCMP response brings violence to the camp and puts protesters and community members in danger. The City of Burnaby owes it to residents to learn from the past and act accordingly.

We are calling on the City of Burnaby to put its energy and resources into responding to the risks of the dangerous Trans Mountain Pipeline project. We are demanding City workers commit to regular monitoring of Kinder Morgan’s activity at the tank farm and for the City to immediately cancel the eviction notice issued to Camp Cloud.

Signed,