Today, Canada’s Federal Court of Appeals is to release its decision on a First Nations’ suit against the National Energy Board’s green-lighting of the pipeline formerly known as Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Expansion.
They and their co-litigants argue, not only did the government of Canada fail to fulfill its mandated duty to provide ‘meaningful consultation’ before allowing a major project affecting First Nations lands and/or the Peoples’ ability to pursue their treaty guaranteed way of life, but the project too threatens Pacific Salmon and the endangered Southern Resident Orca.
It’s an “important decision” that will be “watched very closely” says Will George, of the (Slay-wah-tuth) Tsleil-Waututh First Nation; but the fact the federal government bought out Kinder Morgan, and the Prime Minister has promised the pipeline will be completed leaves little drama as to which way the Federal Court’s decision is likely to go; in case there ever was a doubt.
Dahr Jamail is a Truthout staff reporter and author of the books, ‘The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan’, ‘Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches From an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq’, and, with William Rivers Pitt, ‘The Mass Destruction of Iraq: Why It Is Happening, and Who Is Responsible’. Dahr’s latest article at Truthout is, ‘For Native Americans, History Continues to Repeat Itself‘.
Dahr Jamail in the first half.
And; it’s the Summer of Fire here in BC; just like last year, and the year before, and next year we can expect the same. Because of these fires, my second guest reminds, British Columbia has become a larger emitter of green house gases than our Mordor-like neighbour, Alberta. Think on that a moment.
Ingmar Lee is a long-time, BC-based environment defender. From the Nanaimo watershed and first-growth valley bottoms of Vancouver Island, to Cathedral Grove and the threatened Sandhill Crane nesting grounds of British Columbia’s mid-coast, Ingmar has advocated for and stood between an increasingly fragile ecosystem and big business and its government enablers.
He says, like in Alberta where “thou shalt not criticize, nor recognize the tar sands guest contribution to the global climate change emergency”, here in BC the mantra is, “thou shalt not criticize, nor recognize the significant and direct responsibility of voracious industrial logging to rampant, cataclysmic forest fires.”
Ingmar Lee and BC: Land of Smoke and Gases in the second half.
And; Victoria-based activist and CFUV Radio broadcaster at-large, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things to be gotten up to in and around our town in the coming week. But first, Dahr Jamail and past as present and prologue for First Nations across Turtle Island.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/