• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022 January 31, 2023
Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB January 31, 2023
Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty January 31, 2023
Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds January 31, 2023
Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing January 23, 2023
Next
Prev

Post-Approval Battle Lines Form Over Trans Mountain

December 7, 2016
Reading time: 3 minutes

Mark Klotz/Flickr

Mark Klotz/Flickr

 
Mark Klotz/Flickr
Mark Klotz/Flickr

Houston-based Kinder Morgan may have received a federal government permit to triple the capacity of the 53-year-old Canadian pipeline it bought in 2005, but actual construction remains in doubt as the battle lines form for and against the Trans Mountain expansion plan.

For a while last week, it appeared the term might be more than metaphorical, when federal Natural Resources Minister and GreenPAC endorsee James Carr seemed to threaten to use military force to push the American-owned pipeline through against domestic opposition.

  • Concise headlines. Original content. Timely news and views from a select group of opinion leaders. Special extras.
  • Everything you need, nothing you don’t.
  • The Weekender: The climate news you need.
New!
Subscribe

“Carr suggested Canada is prepared to deploy the military against anti-pipeline actions deemed ‘not to be peaceful,’” Indigenous-focused APTN News reported, “raising the possibility the country could face a scenario last seen during the Oka Crisis in 1990.”

What Carr actually told an Alberta business audience, according to several reports, was that, “If people choose for their own reasons not to be peaceful, then the government of Canada, through its defence forces, through its police forces, will ensure that people will be kept safe. We have a history of peaceful dialogue and dissent in Canada. If people determine that that’s not the path they want to follow, then we live under the rule of law.”

His remarks reportedly received applause in the room, but they were met by outrage on social media and opposition benches of Parliament. Quebec NDP MP Pierre-Luc Dusseault, called Carr’s statement “irresponsible and even dangerous,” asking, “how can the government defend the minister and those comments?” His colleague Randall Garrison condemned the “incendiary language” and reminded the minister that “in this country the federal government has no authority to use our military against pipeline protests.”

Carr walked back the inflammatory comment later in an interview with CBC Radio, assuring listeners that there was “no warning intended” by his choice of words. However, environmental activists are already lining up to resist the pipeline.

“What if we gave Canada 20 Standing Rocks?” asked Mohawk Grand Chief Serge Simon, a staunch opponent of an alternative route for diluted Alberta bitumen through Quebec to Saint John, NB., according to the web-based North American Energy News.

Kai Nagata, a Vancouver-based environmental campaigner with the Dogwood Initiative, told the same outlet that “no matter what, we’re going to see the threats of escalating civil disobedience. You’re going to see calls for physical resistance to the expansion. And this being the 21st century, I think we’re going to see these kinds of messages travel very quickly thanks to social media.”

Those calls may be all the stronger in light of legal assessments that attempts to stop the pipeline expansion in court are likely to prove futile. The project faces no fewer than seven challenges before the Federal Court of Canada, four of them by First Nations arguing violations of their Constitutional rights.

However, three experts in aboriginal law told the Vancouver Sun those cases would be unlikely to prevent Kinder Morgan from commencing construction on its line as it plans to sometime next year.

“It could slow things down—that’s the extent of it,” University of B.C. law professor Gordon Christie told the Sun. “The kinds of arguments [First Nations] are making, they don’t have, at this point, what counts as a veto,”

According to Robin Junger, co-lead with McMillian LLP’s Aboriginal practice in Vancouver, “the law is that [Kinder Morgan’s crews] are entitled to move forward despite the court cases being filed. For anyone to change that, they would have to make a special application for an injunction against the decision. And that’s a high threshold to meet.”

University of Saskatchewan law professor Dwight Newman agreed the prospects of Indigenous or environmental groups securing such an injunction were low, adding that even if the courts found that Ottawa had failed to consult adequately with First Nations, “the most likely remedy would be for that consultation to take place.” On the other hand, the Sun added, “that consultation could lead to accommodation that gradually made the project ‘undoable’”.



in Canada, Climate & Society, Climate Action / "Blockadia", Energy Politics, Fossil Fuels, Jurisdictions, Pipelines / Rail Transport, Tar Sands / Oil Sands

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Mike Mozart/Flickr
Ending Emissions

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

January 31, 2023
287
Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures
Canada

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
177
CONFENIAE
Ending Emissions

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
54

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Mike Mozart/Flickr

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

January 31, 2023
287
Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
177
Doc Searls/Twitter

Guilbeault Could Intervene on Ontario Greenbelt Development

January 31, 2023
117
Ken Teegardin www.SeniorLiving.Org/flickr

Virtual Power Plants Hit an ‘Inflection Point’

January 31, 2023
101
/snappy goat

Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds

January 31, 2023
79
RL0919/wikimedia commons

Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing

January 23, 2023
2.3k

Recent Posts

CONFENIAE

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
54
Victorgrigas/wikimedia commons

World Bank Climate Reforms Too ‘Timid and Slow,’ Critics Warn

January 31, 2023
38
United Nations

Salvage of $20B ‘Floating Time Bomb’ Delayed by Rising Cost of Oil Tankers

January 27, 2023
119
@tongbingxue/Twitter

Extreme Warming Ahead Even as Worst-Case Scenarios Grow ‘Obsolete’

January 23, 2023
340
Rachel Notley/Facebook

Notley Scorches Federal Just Transition Bill as Fossil CEO Calls for Oilsands Boom

January 23, 2023
310
EcoAnalytics

Albertans Want a Just Transition, Despite Premier’s Grumbling

January 23, 2023
318
Next Post

Northeastern US faces fiercer hurricanes

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}