Canada and Oil Exploration

No trespassing.

The Federal Court of Appeal’s ruling on August 30, 2018 to delay Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to expand the Trans Mountain pipeline, adds another tile to what we can call the ‘no trespassing on native land’ rulings.
It is even misleading to use the term native because it came with European settlers who had one item on the agenda, free land or what they thought was free land.  Canadian courts consistently reaffirm that it is not.  Canada originally belonged to First Nations the same way India in Asia belongs to Indians, China to the Chinese, Africa to Africans and Europe to Europeans.

Consultation
The Federal Court of Appeal wrote: “There was no meaningful two-way dialogue.” Canadian courts consistently reaffirm land rights of indigenous people, which was not the case when British and French settlers, driven by biting poverty in Europe, initially grabbed the land through fraud and the bible.

What is the bone of contention?  It is oil, expanding an existing oil pipeline that will be built across two Canadian provinces and through the little land left that First Nations (you used to call them red Indians) call their own.
That is why the Federal Court of Appeal ruled that there was no adequate consultation with them before Trudeau’s government approved the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, to move crude oil from the province of Alberta to British Columbia Province where it is shipped to other countries, especially the United States.

Tsleil-Waututh First Nation has been at the forefront to stop the Kinder Morgan expansion oil pipeline long before environmental groups such as Greenpeace and Save The Arctic pitched in. The First Nation raised the issue of inadequate consultation way back in April 2018.  The following quote is from a CBC website.
“A British Columbia First Nation is questioning the greenlighting of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline, arguing there may be new evidence the federal government failed to complete consultations with First Nations prior to approving the expansion.”

Ownership
Whose pipeline is it? Trudeau is the adopted parent after Kinder Morgan, the birth parent of the oil project abandoned the baby because negative media from ongoing protests by Canada’s indigenous communities, environmental groups and the British Columbia provincial government, was hurting their brand.

The August court ruling identified trespassing on two fronts, on First Nations’ land and British Columbia’s.  It said the proposed Trans Mountain expansion pipeline is bound to result in more oil tankers along the province’s coastline, something the National Energy Board (NEB) did not take into consideration during its environmental assessment of the project.
The NEB website states its mandate.  We regulate pipelines, energy development and trade in the Canadian public interest.  Before we make a decision or recommendation, we factor in economic, environmental and social considerations.
The National Energy Board missed the boat because of the definition of Canadian.  More often than not, decision makers regard big business and their promise of jobs as Canadian. Who is and what is Canadian?  Who are the twins:  Canadian and public interest?  Understanding what the government regards as public interest is important because it is Prime Minister Trudeau’s raison d'etre.


Jobs.  That is what it is, a fallacy because they have an expiry date.  They are created by shareholders, money men who close shop once they have depleted mother earth of gold, copper, diamonds and oil.  Therefore, the promise of temporary jobs is today.  Damage from oil spills and other social and environmental scars from oil exploration is tomorrow, something that doesn’t concern the present prime minister because he will not be in office.
Canada Day 2015
Photo:  Nonqaba waka Msimang
But Justin Trudeau is not taking the Court of Appeal’s August 2018 ruling lying down. Most likely, he passed the baton to his communication managers who have an online ad, with the keep Canada working message.

The Court of Appeal said there was no ‘meaningful two-way dialogue’ with First Nations.  That is the hole communication experts will try to fill.  It will take more than conferences, conference bags crammed with printed material most people don’t read and t-shirts, to convince Tsleil-Waututh and other First Nations that Trans Mountain is good for them and Canada.
European settlers found Canada incredibly beautiful because First Nations had lived in harmony with land, the sea and the air for thousands of years.

By:  Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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