This article was published today on TheTyee.ca It is an article by Rafe Mair.
Read the entire article here.Watch a video of Nathan Cullen talking about this same issue, by opening the attachment below.OIL SPILL THREAT TO BC JUST GOT BIGGERIf you doubt the fact that there will be ruptures in the pipeline, I invite you to look at the company's (Enbridge) website and what they will do when there is one.
It's interesting to look at Enbridge's spill in July 2010 at Kalamazoo, Michigan. It took two days before Enbridge responded, and at this time 15 months later, they're still cleaning up -- they can never completely do the job. And the Kalamazoo River runs through developed, thus accessible land.
When the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipelines have their first spill and it's in the wilderness, can you imagine the horror story that will be? How do you know when there's been a rupture? How do you get there? How do you get equipment there? Once there, what can you do? Isn't it fair to say that the damage will be permanent with catastrophic impacts on wildlife and salmon streams and rivers, and nothing can change that?
It must always be remembered that we're not talking about a "risk" here, but a mathematical certainty. Let's be clear. We're looking at ongoing, certain spills in our sensitive wilderness, all of which are almost impossible to reach in a shorter term, and so will do permanent damage to this precious land.
Now let's look at the tanker traffic which would result from these pipelines.
Former federal environment minister David Anderson had this to say: "If oil tanker traffic is allowed off the coast, it becomes a statistical question of when, not if, an accident is going to occur."
Can we stop it?
Only if we are prepared to go the distance. There will be threats to meet from the federal government and courts, and there will be bribes offered. The threats will be brute force, you can bank on that.
I believe that the mass of B.C.'s population wants nothing to do with these projects and will happily use civil disobedience to enforce their views.
Before finishing, let's remember that any who are guilty of civil disobedience must be prepared to accept the consequences. Having said that, we must rally in huge numbers. We must be prepared to lie down in the path of machinery and when the expected injunction is achieved, we must be prepared to go to jail. In fact, if enough of us do this, there won't be enough jail cells to hold us.
Given the fatal environmental damage these international corporations will inflict, we surely must spare no opportunity to fight these pipelines and tankers with everything we can, short of violence.
Read the entire article here.ENBRIDGE MOVES ONE STEP FORWARD AND CULLEN HAS SOMETHING TO SAYOn Friday morning, November 11, 2011, Remembrance Day, Canada's finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced, referring to the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project, stated Canada may need to move quicker on this. He claimed the potential harm to the Canadian economy by the USA government rejecting or delaying the new Keystone XL pipeline meant Canada would need to move quicker to secure the Asian Market.
We asked Cullen about this at the Kiva Café after his leadership bid presentation while he was asking the audience if they had any questions. We recorded his answer and it can be watched by opening the attachment below.
Not mad just sad....