Over eighty community, labour and environmental groups have released an open letter in support of Caretakers of Burnaby Mountain and Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion. Here is the letter.
We, the undersigned, express our support for those who are protecting Burnaby Mountain from Kinder Morgan geotechnical survey work.
Burnaby Mountain is public land (on unceded Indigenous territories) that is used frequently as a recreational area and is a designated Conservation Area.
The City of Burnaby and its residents have been vocal for several years against Kinder Morgan’s $5.4 billion Trans Mountain pipeline and terminal expansion proposal that would transport even more diluted bitumen and bring even more tankers to the Burrard Inlet.
Over 70% of Burnaby residents are opposed to Kinder Morgan’s expansion. (Source: http://is.gd/j79aOJ) Residents have been educating themselves through town halls, teach-ins and personal research and have determined that the risks to public safety and environmental degradation from Kinder Morgan’s proposal are too high. Many residents are no strangers to the harmful health impacts of tar sands crude given that the city was home to a terrible oil spill in 2007.
The City of Burnaby is currently in the process of appealing a National Energy Board decision that grants Kinder Morgan access to the designated Conservation Area. This is a critical constitutional question of whether a regulatory body can grant a corporation the authority to override municipal bylaws.
The Tsleil-Waututh Nation has also launched a legal challenge of Kinder Morgan’s pipeline and tankers project. This is the first legal challenge by a First Nation against the new pipeline and tanker proposal, citing the federal government’s failure to first consult Tsleil-Waututh on key decisions about the environmental assessment and regulatory review of the project.
The pipeline facilitates Tar Sands expansion on Indigenous territories along the pipeline route and at the source. This would violate numerous Aboriginal Treaty Rights and the overall well-being of these communities, many of whom have already emphatically said no to Kinder Morgan’s expansion. As the Supreme Court of Canada has consistently upheld, it is the federal government’s duty to respect these treaties, as well as the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples living on unceded lands along the pipeline route.
Therefore it should come as no surprise that community members are on Burnaby Mountain. These caretakers and residents should not be facing an injunction or a multimillion-dollar lawsuit by a corporate energy giant. Given the federal government’s failure to respond to residents, to Indigenous communities at the source of Tar Sands destruction and along the proposed pipeline route, and to municipal concerns, we laud these protectors for their bravery in taking a stand against Kinder Morgan.
We invite all individuals to sign this letter that will go directly to Kinder Morgan: http://act.350.org/letter/burnabysupport/
Initial List of Sixty-Five Signatories:
- Asian Youth Dialogues Collective
- Building Bridges-Human Rights Vancouver
- Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion
- Café Rebelde Collective
- Climate Convergence
- Coalition of South Asian Women Against Violence
- Colour Connected Against Racism (UBC)
- Connective Project
- Council of Canadians
- Defenders of the Land
- Delusions of Development
- Dogwood Initiative
- Forest Action Network
- ForestEthics Advocacy
- Georgia Strait Alliance
- Global Queer Research Group, UBC
- Greenpeace
- Heartwood Community Cafe
- Idle No More
- Latinos in Action
- Lead Now
- Left Front
- Living Oceans Society
- LopezNOCOALition
- Mainlander
- Mexicans Living in Vancouver
- Mi’kmaq Warrior Society
- Mining Justice Alliance
- Missourians Organizing for Reform & Empowerment
- Native Youth Movement
- No One Is Illegal-Vancouver Coast Salish Territories
- Peace Alliance of Surrey
- PIPE UP Network
- Pivot Legal Society
- Portland Rising Tide
- RAGA Graduate and Undergraduate Student Network
- Rising Tide North America
- Rising Tide – Coast Salish Territories
- Rococode
- Root Force
- San Juans Alliance
- San Juan Islanders for Safe Shipping
- Sanctuary Health
- Save Our Shores Gabriola
- Secwepemc Womens Warrior Society
- Shit Harper Did
- Sierra Club BC
- Social Housing Alliance
- South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy
- Streams of Justice
- System Change Not Climate Change
- Toronto350 dot org
- Trikone Vancouver
- Unifor
- Union of BC Indian Chiefs
- Unist’ot’en Camp
- Vancouver Ecosocialists
- Vancouver Status of Women
- WaterWealth Project
- We Love this Coast
- WildCoast dot ca
- Wilderness Committee
- Wild Idaho Rising Tide
- Wildlife Defence League
- 350 dot org
Additional signatories (rolling basis):
1. Friends of the Earth International
2. Beyond Boarding
3. T. Buck Suzuki Environmental Foundation
4. Simon Fraser Public Interest Research Group
5. UFAWU-Unifor (United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union)
6. Gabriola S-O-S
7. March Against Monsanto – Victoria, BC
8. Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society
9. Friends of Lily Lake
10. Wildsight
11. Voters Taking Action on Climate Change
12. Council of Canadians Windsor Essex Chapter
13. Green Shelters Corporation
14. Project Pipeline dot org
15. Friends of the San Juans
16. FORPA Forest Protection Allies
17. Social & Environmental Justice Committee of Vancouver Quaker Meeting
18. SWATT Smart Women Against Traffic Team
19. Clayoquot Action
20. SAFE (Students Active for the Environment – Kwantlen)
21. Social Justice Committee of the Unitarian Church of Vancouver
22. Chaos Faerie
23. Raincoast Conservation Foundation
24. Global Compliance Research Project
25. Greenpeace – Victoria
26. Polaris Institute
27. System Change Not Climate Change-Dallas/Fort Worth
28. UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
29. SMART CHANGE (Vancouver – Victoria)
30. Marineland Animal Defense
31. Vancouver Community Laboratory
32. Graphic History Collective
33. Rainforest Action Network
34. SFU350
35. Talon – UBC
36. How we Roll Longboards
37. Canada Waking Up the Masses
38. DaDaBaBy Enterprises
If you would like to add your support, fill in the form at the bottom of this page: http://peoplesclimateconvergence.org/we-stand-caretakers-burnaby-mountain