This morning, [Thursday, August 30, 2018] Canada’s federal court of appeal issued a HUGE ruling in our favor on the much anticipated Pull Together court case decision regarding the Trans Mountain pipeline. The “quashing” means the Trudeau government's approval of the project is overturned, and the court is ordering them to go back to the drawing board and redo the approvals process. This means the permits are no longer valid, construction must be halted, and we’re victorious!
US Tribes response
Our statement here
Seattle Times article here
Coverage from [August30] press conference
This was the best ruling we could have hoped for. It is clear: the federal approvals process failed to adequately consult First Nations, and they failed to take into account impacts from increased tanker traffic on the ocean. This is a movement moment for indigenous rights, for the plight against dirty fuels, and for the resilience of our activists.
A massive, make you smile so hard you cry, kind of a win.
At the beginning of 2017, the dirty fuels campaign in WA partnered with Sierra Club BC, RAVEN Trust and Force of Nature Alliance to support First Nations (Tsleil-Waututh, Coldwater, Squamish and Stk’emlúpsemc) legal actions they filed in federal court to the trans mountain pipeline. Together with organizations in British Columbia and Washington state, we organized events, and brought communities together to raise the over $640K that funded the legal fees for these victories. About one fourth of that sum was raised stateside.
What I keep saying to folks is that this victory is particularly amazing because it is first and foremost a win for First Nations and indigenous rights. But, it’s also a victory for every person that organized a Pull Together event -- from pub nights to raffles to converts and walks for a cause --this effort was a true grassroots flex. Every single dollar counted towards making this tangible.
The Trudeau government is in a horrid position at this point, considering that they announced their purchase of this project from Kinder Morgan in May. As they stutter to come through with a real response, we know that an appeal or attempt to remedy consultation will not bring this pipeline back to life. The question is only how long it might zombie on, never to be built.
The process to remedy these cases would takes years and millions of dollars. A great line the Seattle Times pulled puts that in perspective: “Meaningful consultation is not intended simply to allow indigenous peoples “to blow off steam,” the decision said.
The proposed project would have made the Trans pipeline bigger than Keystone XL, and increase tanker traffic through the Salish Sea by 700 percent. The pipeline and tanker project posed unacceptable risks to our oceans and waterways, our climate, economies, and communities. If the project had moved forward, it would threaten tribal rights, but also resident orcas, the salmon population, and all of our water.
We are still awaiting what this means regarding the Puget Sound Pipeline (which splits from the existing Trans Mountain Pipeline east of Langley, B.C. and runs into Washington state to the BP and Phillips 66 refineries in Whatcom County and the Andeavor (formerly Tesoro) and Shell refineries in Skagit County) and what that means for the land use code work our partners have been doing in Whatcom county and for other regulatory issues/violations.
For now, we raise our glasses.
Victoria Leistman, Sierra Club Associate Organizer