Pipeline ‘celebration’ rally taking place at the Vancouver Art Gallery

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Fresh off a recent ruling from the Federal Court of Appeal that put the brakes on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, activists gathered in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery for a celebration — and protest.

Environmental activists with Climate Convergence are calling for the pipeline to be abandoned entirely, and for the Federal Government to move towards greener energy. The group also takes aim at the purchase of the Trans Mountain pipeline by Ottawa earlier this year.

“At the Paris Climate Summit in 2015, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made bold promises, and expressed his commitment to climate leadership,” a release reads.

“But his government’s recent acquisition of the Trans Mountain pipeline for $4.5bn contradicts that claim. The time for action is now; we can either expand Canada’s fossil fuel industry OR address the climate change emergency facing our planet, but it’s a fallacy to expect we can do both.”

Thomas Davies, organizer with Climate Convergence, and other so-called “climate defenders” says after fighting the project for so long, the message is finally being heard.

“When the Indigenous nations were saying, ‘We’re not getting consulted with in a real way,’ those are all things that we’ve been saying for years,” Davies says. “So to have the Federal Court of Appeal recognize that has been really important.”

International day of action

Davies says the fact they’re holding this demonstration on an international day of action is fitting.

“Today is an international day of action called ‘Rise for Climate.’ There is over 900 actions happening in over 90 countries around the world,” Davies tells NEWS 1130.

“They are already happening everywhere and Vancouver is definitely a big part of this, especially given the fight that’s happening here against the Kinder Morgan and now, I guess, Trudeau pipeline.”

The proposed twinning of the Trans Mountain pipeline from Edmonton to Burnaby Mountain is supposed to triple the shipment of diluted bitumen from Alberta’s tar sands for the global export market.

Because of the court decision, Alberta’s premier, Rachel Notley, pulled her province out of the federal Climate Action Plan, which has a goal to cut down on carbon emissions nationwide in a global effort to keep temperature from rising further over the next decades.

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