The drama began around 10am at a staging area where dozens of citizens have been gathered for days. Suddenly, the word went out: Kinder Morgan crews were advancing into the woods.
“Kinder Morgan is at bore hole one!” yelled SFU professor, Stephen Collis.
“Kinder Morgan is at bore hole one!”
Instantly, a mad dash of citizens, journalists and filmmakers ran several minutes into the Conservation forest to intersect with the company crews.
“You’re access is not acknowledged!” yelled a protester to the crews.
“You have no right to be here!” said another. “Canada doesn’t want your dirty oil money!"
“[expletive] off back to Texas! [expletive] off back to Texas!” yelled more.
Kinder Morgan crews on the mountain had their cameras too, filming the protesters, as well as a crew leader handing out a company statement, which read that the company is doing survey work permitted by the National Energy Board.
The Texas-based pipeline giant is seeking to do geotechnical drill studies for a possible underground tunnel for the last leg of its proposed Edmonton-to-Burnaby bitumen oil pipeline.
Citizens said they were opposed to the removal of trees in a conservation zone, and had general worries about oil sands expansion, pipeline and tanker spills, local ecosystem impacts, and the worsening of climate change.
Also long opposing the pipeline has been the City of Burnaby, including Mayor Derek Corrigan, which has tried legal means to stop the company. But last week, the NEB granted the company access to the mountain, provided it give 48 hours notice.
But Wednesday, citizens appeared to have stopped the crews - for now.
“At some locations, our crews were obstructed and have left for the day," said Greg Toth, Senior Project Director, Trans Mountain Expansion Project in an e-mail.
"We’re considering our next steps to ensure we complete the studies required to support our Application," he added.
As the crews exited the mountain forest onto a leafy residential street, they were met by another obstruction.
An 18-year-old pinned himself under a Kinder Morgan jeep with an Alberta licence plate.
“I am chaining myself to a Kinder Morgan affiliated vehicle,” said George Khossi, to an array of journalists, as he lay motionless under the vehicle. He remarked coyly:
“I’m enjoying the mass media, [its] censorship, [the] genocide, and the invasion of unceded Coast Salish territory.”
Khossi said oil was destroying the earth, and added he would stay under jeep for “as long it takes.”
RCMP said Wednesday afternoon they had not made any arrests.
The Mounties added that they had not been contacted by Kinder Morgan to intervene on their behalf and were there to keep the peace.
Leading much of the opposition has been the citizens’ group called BROKE (Burnaby Residents Opposed to Kinder Morgan Expansion), which erected a tent, and a staging area for citizens to gather.
The group's spokesperson Stephen Collis said this about the young man’s action under the jeep:
“He’s reacting to a very volatile situation. Kinder Morgan tried to force their way into the clearing, where people are holding the space.
“People are trying to do what is necessary to try and prevent this massive pipeline from being built on the mountain.”
He added, at the moment, there’s no court order preventing anyone from being on the mountain where the company wishes to do its geotechnical work.
BROKE said it had a phone tree of 100 people who were rotating through the camp to continue to monitor the company's activity and oppose the project.
The $5.4-billion Trans Mountain pipeline would triple the flow of an existing pipeline to load more than 400 super tankers per year out of the Port of Vancouver.
The Mayor's office said recently that the City of Burnaby will continue its legal challenge against the pipeline project in a federal court.
Original Article
Source: vancouverobserver.com/
Author: Mychaylo Prystupa
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