Hundreds rally against Endbridge Oil
By Michael Scott
On a soggy Monday afternoon, hundreds of people rallied against the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline from the tar sands in Alberta to Kitimat, British Columbia. The protest was lead by the Heiltsuk people, whom proudly describe themselves as the care takers of their territorial lands and waters, in the Great Bear Rainforest on BC’s Central Coast.
The rally began modestly at the Bear Initiative Office on Granville, swelled at the Vancouver Art Gallery, then hit the streets for a march to the Enbridge office on Burrard.
“We can’t canoe in an ocean of oil, and we can’t feed a two-headed salmon to our elders and children, and we won’t be able to teach the practices of our culture to the future generations,” explained eleven-year-old Ta’Kaiya Blaney, as she warned the crowd of over a thousand of the devastation an oil spill would incur on the people, animals, and general ecology of British Columbia.
She went on to sing her opus, Shallow Waters, which poignantly articulates the need for people to resist the aspirations of corporations such as Enbridge and Kindar Morgan — who want to expand oil tanker traffic in Vancouver’s Burrard inlet and turn Kitimat into a massive oil shipping port. She sang, “if we do nothing it will all be gone.”
Following Blaney’s igniting performance, hundreds poured into the streets with placards, banners, and chants denouncing tar sands expansion across BC. The spirited march ended with a massive rally in front of the Enbridge office on Burrard street.
If this many people can be galvanized on a rainy Monday, it is certain that more and larger rallies will be planned in the future until Enbridge and Kindar Morgan come up with better ideas for British Columbia’s coast.
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