RCMP continues arresting protesters against Kinder Morgan surveying on Burnaby Mountain

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      Today, Canada's best-known environmentalist, David Suzuki, showed up to support people protesting Kinder Morgan's survey work on Burnaby Mountain.

      His grandson, Tamo Campos, was taken into custody on November 20 after he challenged police lines. They were set up to to allow the company to continue its operations.

      Meanwhile, Suzuki's granddaughter Tomiko was arrested today along with members of the Tahltan First Nation, according to the Vancouver Observer.

      Also today, CKNW has reported that more than a dozen people were "put in police vehicles" on the fourth consecutive day of protests.

      Yesterday afternoon, the Burnaby RCMP stated that 53 people had been arrested since November 20. That included one man booked for assault after he allegedly spit on a Mountie.

      Vancouver civil-rights lawyer Gail Davidson has questioned why the company is even doing the survey work while the issue is before the courts.

      The City of Burnaby remains vehemently opposed to the project. It has filed an application in the Federal Court of Appeal to set aside a National Energy Board ruling to permit survey work on Burnaby Mountain.

      Burnaby maintains that Kinder Morgan is violating municipal bylaws.

      In a letter released last month, Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan provided his city's response to several of the company's claims. You can read them below.

      Kinder Morgan describes its pipeline as a twinning.

      In fact, in Burnaby 90 percent of the proposed line would follow a completely new route. It would carry unrefined oil products, not the refined (and less toxic) products carried in the existing line. It would result in a tripling of the capacity of oil stored on Burnaby Mountain and seven times the number of tankers carrying the oil (up to 580,000 barrels in each tanker) through Burrard inlet. The 890,000 barrels per day of oil it would carry would be for export, not for use anywhere in Canada. In no way would this pipeline resemble the existing line.

      Kinder Morgan says they are your neighbour.

      Kinder Morgan is a Houston-based, multinational energy company. Its founder, chair, and CEO—former Enron executive Richard Kinder, one of the richest men in America—is not our neighbour. He left Enron to start his investment company. His energy operations began with the purchase of Enron Liquids Pipeline.

      Kinder Morgan says Trans Mountain has "been operating safely in your community since 1953".

      They have not! Kinder Morgan didn’t purchase the Trans Mountain pipeline until 2005. Since then, they have had a number of large spills, one of the most significant of which was in 2007 in Burnaby and saw a neighbourhood drenched in 1,572 barrels of crude oil, some of which flowed all the way to Burrard Inlet. Emergency evacuation of 250 Burnaby residents was required and 50 residential properties were affected. The spill entered the Burrard Inlet through a storm sewer and affected 1,200 metres of shoreline, impacting ecosystems and wildlife. The Transportation Safety Board ruled that the spill was the fault of Kinder Morgan and two contracting companies.

      Kinder Morgan says this pipeline would provide economic benefits for Burnaby

      It would not. Though short-term jobs would be created in pipeline construction, there is no guarantee that any of these jobs would be for local workers. The number of long-term jobs that would be created is insignificant. Kinder Morgan president, Ian Anderson, has admitted this fact.

      The economic value of any taxes Kinder Morgan would pay would not offset the negative economic impacts to other businesses and the significant permanent limitations the pipeline right-of-way would put on land-use opportunities.

      Burnaby has long-term plans—developed with our citizens—for town centre, transportation, residential and recreational developments. All would be severely negatively impacted by the pipeline, tank farm and docks.

      Given the planned and potential economic development opportunities that would be eliminated, the taxes Kinder Morgan would pay would not compensate for the permanent damage the project would cause—even without the devastating economic, social and environmental impacts of an oil spill or tank farm fire.

      Kinder Morgan told the National Energy Board that Burnaby’s request to hold a hearing locally (not in Calgary), to enable Burnaby citizens and businesses to participate, is “just another attempt by Burnaby to delay and obstruct”.

      This is astonishing. Burnaby believes it is critical to ensure citizens can participate in the National Energy Board review process. We therefore requested that the National Energy Board hold a hearing in Burnaby or Vancouver. Kinder Morgan called our request “an attempt to delay and obstruct”.

      The hearing then took place on October 9 in Calgary to determine whether or not Kinder Morgan can continue to break Burnaby’s bylaws and cut down trees in our Burnaby Mountain Conservation Area to enable Kinder Morgan to create a helicopter staging area and to drill bore holes for a project that has not been subject to public hearings and has not been deemed by any local, regional, provincial or federal government in Canada to be in the public interest.

      Kinder Morgan says the route that would include tunnelling through Burnaby Mountain is now their preferred route.

      Kinder Morgan has changed their stated route preference several times. After the change to Burnaby Mountain, the National Energy Board postponed the project hearings by seven months, as citizens who would be directly affected because of the change had been given no opportunity to participate in the hearings.

      We believe that Kinder Morgan’s repeated preferred route changes are designed to divide our community and to enable them to say they are responding to public input. We expect their route preferences to continue to change.

      Kinder Morgan says they are “committed” to “fully restore” any areas they disturb.

      This is not possible. The damage done as a result of Kinder Morgan’s initial survey work has had far-reaching damaging effects on the Mountain. Further drilling and tunnelling work would cause much greater irreparable damage to the conservation area. Certified arborists described the damage from Kinder Morgan’s initial survey, saying: “The impact of this action will be felt for many years to come and will extend much further than the direct area of intrusion…The removal of 6 mature live alders and 7 wildlife trees has had an immediate visual and ecological impact on the Site 1 K.M.C. Drilling Location. There will also be long term effects of such a high level of disturbance that will be felt in the immediate area and surrounding areas downhill.

      “None of the trees removed, live or wildlife, posed any kind of risk or hazard to the public. There were no trails or structures which would have been impacted by the standing wildlife trees.”

      The rest of the letter can be read on the City of Burnaby website.

      Comments

      13 Comments

      Me Stupid MaN

      Nov 23, 2014 at 8:42pm

      So why doesn't David Suzuki take a risk & follow in the footsteps of his grandchildren?.....Or does that just make too much sense?

      Can we just

      Nov 23, 2014 at 11:32pm

      Can we please just cut off Vancouver from all petroleum products. Everything and Anything that contains oil or uses oil. Gasoline at the pumps, Coffee (as it is transported by oil), Food, any products containing plastic, yup Yoga pants too.

      I am really sick of hearing about this crap. And any anti-oil post on this site gets more dislikes and likes which can be taken as a general majority of vancouvrites are against petroleum.

      Cut them off. Let them have what they want.

      I really want to watch Vancouverites squirm

      AJ

      Nov 24, 2014 at 2:16am

      The city of Burnaby should opt out of the RCMP contract!

      cathy

      Nov 24, 2014 at 7:20am

      Yesterday i went up to the Mountain for the first time to the big rally
      The RCMP had closed off the road into the Horizons restaurant area and parking lot.
      The option for those driving was to go back down the Mountain and park around Duthie St. and walk back up. This was a steep mountain climb up-many just turned around and left.
      They wouldn't even let you drop off older people or those with disabilities.
      They had no right to close off a public road.
      No question whose side they are on.

      View from the coast

      Nov 24, 2014 at 8:21am

      Can we just
      You ignore the fact that none of the bitumen coming down that pipe is for the residents of Vancouver. It is to allow China to compete against Canadian business and workers and to line the pockets of investors that do not live here, many of whom have complete contempt for us. This will allow the oil companies to charge us more, not less. There is NO benefit to BC, except the pennies that are thrown for us to run after.

      ursa minor

      Nov 24, 2014 at 9:00am

      'Can we just' tell people like 'Can we just' to start understanding that this is about REDUCING petroleum dependency and moving toward renewables rather than playing the idiotic right wing zero-sum game of "oil" or "no oil".

      What part of TRANSITION don't these people understand? And no, procrastination is not transition. Just because it's not possible to do it all at once doesn't let you off the hook to do anything. Grow up and stop pointing fingers at people who are pointing to the future.

      hAYOKA

      Nov 24, 2014 at 9:25am

      It's not that oil / petrochemicals are bad per se it's the strangle hold these degenerate petroleum corporations ,these exploitative monopoly have on our world and there destructive by products .
      We have many forms of energy and if you have any kind of intelligence or a drop of searching skills you can find many many examples , articles by tenured and respected scientists , engineers , designers and communities alike showing how there are better alternative to oil in most cases of energy use .
      So when someone says I would like to see Vancouver never use another petroleum product because supporting the brave people on Burnaby mountain is selfish and our survival depends on petroleum these comments are very ignorant and lazy . Its not a zero sum game it's about our health our Eco-systems survival ,we need to phase out the ignorance of oil dependency . Only greedy selfish persons would think oil monopolies in this day and age are an option .

      Observer

      Nov 24, 2014 at 10:38am

      Kinder Morgan, the members of National Energy Board The RCMP and the Judges that allows continue breaking any city by-laws and the will of the residents should be indentified and sued directly for damages and causing cruel and unusual distress:

      Treatment or punishment
      12. Everyone has the right not to be subjected to any cruel and unusual treatment or punishment. -CANADIAN CHARTER OF RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
      --------------------------------------------
      The law is for the protection of the weak more than the strong.
      Justice Earle, R v Wooley (1850)

      ursa minor

      Nov 24, 2014 at 10:58am

      haYOKA - Here's the thing: most consumers don't care whether it's a non-renewable or a renewable, what they want is energy. As more research is conducted into renewables, renewables become more cost effective while it becomes more and more expensive to look for oil and extract it.

      Oil's not a monopoly on energy, it's a monopoly on power, in its political and economic forms. Stephen Harper, the Koch Brothers, and Alberta's 'Progressive' Conservative kleptocracy stand to lose everything once the tipping point is reached and renewables are more cost effective than fossil fuels. They know their time in running out, which is why there is literally a hard push to establish pipelines and beat down dissent.

      sam

      Nov 24, 2014 at 11:18am

      I cut 1 tree down on my own private property, it can bring a big fine,jail or both. These ass-holes cut down a "THOUSAND" and protesters go to jail,not a very nice smell coming from Burnaby mountain with all the "Bull-Shit" being thrown around.