Together, our fight against the Trans Mountain pipeline changed the country
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- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
- Written by editor
We lost the battle but we’re winning the war
Hi Paov,
For a long time, I never thought this day would come. It was unthinkable that anybody would allow 34 more oil tankers a month on the Salish Sea. But yesterday, the Trans Mountain pipeline began filling with diluted bitumen from the tar sands in Alberta.
It was a hard day for all of us who’ve spent... more than a decade trying to protect this coast — that includes you.
My heart is especially heavy for the Indigenous people and nations whose rights have been violated and will continue to be violated until Trans Mountain is finally shut off and the world moves on from fossil fuels.
2010 No Tanker rally and flotilla in Stanley Park, Vancouver B.C.
I wasn’t around at the beginning, but the story of how it all started is practically lore at the Wilderness Committee.
Many here still remember the first meeting at our office in Gastown when Rex Wyler from Greenpeace and our own Ben West discovered Kinder Morgan was exporting oil through the Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby, B.C. and had plans to expand it. Their first call was to Rueben George from the Tsleil-Waututh Nation.
Ben West at the 2010 oil tanker die-in protest in Stanley Park, Vancouver B.C.
Yesterday, I was interviewed outside the facility and couldn’t help but think of all of you who have marched in the streets, written letters to politicians and even stood in front of the bulldozers to stop this pipeline.
Thank you for everything you did.
2017 Kinder Morgan rally outside Vancouver City Hall, B.C.
Together, we got the B.C. government to introduce legislation to oppose Trans Mountain. We raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to support First Nations who successfully fought the project in court and sent the company behind the project packing back to Texas.
2017 Kinder Morgan march and rally across the Cambie Bridge, Vancouver, B.C.
If Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had not bought and built this pipeline, we would’ve been able to declare victory. But as I look back at the long fight against Trans Mountain, I know it was worth the heartache.
When I think about how much the conversation in this country around Indigenous rights and climate change has evolved over the last 15 years, I know we played some small part in that.
Rueben George and Joan Phillip at 2018 Kwekwecnewtxw Protect the Inlet Kinder Morgan rally, Burnaby, B.C.
Often we pick these fights knowing the odds are stacked against us. Yet there’s value in fighting them regardless. No matter what, we move the world forward.
In the end, I know beyond any doubt, the movement to end the burning of fossil fuels and salvage a safe climate will be victorious. I’m so grateful to be a part of it with you.
For the climate,
Peter McCartney Climate Campaigner
Wilderness Committee
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