I had to call out Donald Trump for his “incendiary response to a wounded, grieving nation” quoting The Rt. Rev. Mariann Budde, Episcopal Bishop of Washington D.C. Trump is dangerous. I wrote that two weeks back about his unhinged advice in the face of COVID-19. I said it again this week in response to his coded-language which for years has given oxygen to White Supremacists. I called on other Members of Parliament to call him out for his tweets – fomenting violence. I did not however demand that Justin Trudeau do so. I am very aware that the US now poses a real danger to Canada. Keeping our border closed for all but essential traffic really matters. It would not be wise to pick a fight with this infantile bully and risk the health of Canadians in doing so. We must be prepared to assist refugees from the U.S. (you can find the link to various press releases and a press conference in which Greens spoke to this at the end of this letter).

The killing of George Floyd was quickly followed by more acts of Anti-Black Racism – in the United States and in Canada. In the United States, acts of police brutality caught on cell phone video after cell phone video – a steady barrage of
horrific visuals – big white cop wrestling little black girl to the ground next to a chain link fence, National Guard marching up a sleepy suburban street shouting at people on their porches and then opening fire with non-lethal force. Protester after peaceful protester kicked and punched by multiple officers, in city after city – over 100 journalists targeted. The black news reporters arrested blocks from where their white colleagues were left alone.

And in Canada, just this week, we have been horrified by the unexplained but suspicious death of a young Black woman, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, falling from her Toronto apartment balcony with no one with her in her last minutes other than a reported eight police officers. On Thursday, the death by police gun fire in Edmundston NB of Chantel Moore, 26 year old Indigenous woman from Tla-o-qui-aht Nation of Vancouver Island. In Iqaluit, a staggering Inuk man deliberately bashed with the door of the white RCMP truck, before being hustled into the truck. This week marked the one year anniversary of the release of the Report on the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. It is one year and still the government has not responded to the reports multiple recommendations.

One key recommendation was an end to “man camps” – the remote work camps for construction of pipelines. In spite of COVID-19, the governments of Alberta, British Columbia and Canada give these places a free pass. Worse, we have the resumption of work on the TMX pipeline, with our money. It is now a Crown Corporation prepared to spend over $10 billion to build a pipeline for the export of a product with no market. Our corporate media reports the largesse of TransMountain as though it is a philanthropic private entity — funds to community projects in the Kamloops ($700K) and $500K to Thompson Rivers University (over a 20 year period, a paltry $25,000/year) for academic awards. “The company has also signed a mutual benefits agreement with the local Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation to provide employment and business help to the community,” reports the Globe and Mail. Not one word that this is all public money that should have been available to every First Nation – and not as a reward for agreeing to a pipeline. The First Nations that are still in court fighting this project fight against the Government of Canada – not Kinder Morgan in Texas.

To add the ultimate insult, Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage recently gloated that now was a great time to build a pipeline because protests were banned due to COVID19.

The coming week promises to be eventful. We will see as many of six bills trying to get through the Unanimous Consent hurdles in Parliament on Wednesday, while earlier in the week our Green Caucus will release details of how we see the world
in a shared renewal and rejuvenation, or a “new evolution” as recently described.

Stay well and safe. Be a good ally.
Love and prayers for the world,

Elizabeth

This weekly newsletter is published by Elizabeth’s EDA in Saanich-Gulf Islands. You can sign up for it here.

Statements and Press Releases

• Echoes of Tiananmen Square: Greens condemn China’s latest assault on democracy in Hong Kong

Press Conference

• Press Conference: Elizabeth May comments on US anti racism protests

In Their Own Words​

• Elizabeth May: We Cannot Tolerate Racism, but We Know it’s Here
• Jenica Atwin on CTV News: Mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Elizabeth May: Good Sunday Morning – May 31
• Elizabeth May Wants Canada To Accept U.S. Asylum Seekers Now That Country ‘No Longer Safe’ (Huffington Post)

Petitions

Petitions tabled by Green MPs this week

• Uphold UNDRIP and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action
• Call for an investigation on organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners
• Marine Protected Areas

E-petitions open for signature

• e-2525 Eliminate fossil fuel subsidies (closes June 15)
• e-2447 Open competition for research funding (closes June 23)
• e-2450 Legalize the transportation of CBD products across the Canadian border (closes June 26)
• e-2624 Include long-term care in the public health system (closes July 3)
• e-2416 Mandatory labelling of food containing GMOs (closes July 4)
• e-2471 Grant the RCMP Funding for Body Cameras (closes July 16)
• e-2534 Amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (closes August 14)
• e-2565 Request that Israel immediately lift the blockade on Gaza (closes September 4)
• e-2583 Implement a Guaranteed Livable Income (closes 19 August)
• e-2615 Divest CPP from fossil fuel investments (closes October 3)

The post Good Sunday Morning – June 7 appeared first on Elizabeth May.

Depending on where you are in Canada, you are likely dealing with one form of unpredictable extreme weather or another. For those of us on southern Vancouver Island, folks in Winnipeg and St. John’s are entitled to think we are a bunch of wimps who cannot handle winter. But, honestly, as a Cape Breton girl used to fierce winds and howling blizzards, what we had here this week was just as cold and stormy as a bad snow day anywhere I have lived. Here’s hoping you are reading this somewhere warm and cozy.

This morning, I am going to try to give you a decoder ring to the court cases swirling around the Trans Mountain (formerly Kinder Morgan) pipeline. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously on Thursday, dismissing the latest BC government case. This was reported, in error, as though this was the last possible legal route to stop the pipeline. Link

Fortunately, that is not the case. The case pursued by the BC government all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada was (in my view) their least winnable argument. Interprovincial transportation of anything is assumed to be federal jurisdiction. To assert that the pipeline is federal, but the province can regulate what’s in it was a stretch. The fact it was, at best, a long shot is underscored by the fact the Chief Justice made such an unusual and abrupt ruling from the bench immediately after the arguments.

I suspect that the province went to the wall on this case in order to make it look as though the Horgan administration was living up to its promise to “use every tool in the toolbox”. In fact, the BC government has stopped caring about blocking TMX. There are stronger courses of action that are being ignored.

For example, the BC government under Christy Clark agreed with former PM Stephen Harper that no provincial review was required. Clark’s Liberals agreed to rely solely on the strength of the federal review by the National Energy Board. Once that review was slammed by the court and the permits quashed, the BC government should have announced the former federal-provincial agreement was moot and the BC government would pursue its right to assess the impacts of the project. So, once the Federal Court of Appeal struck down the permits in August 2018, many of us urged Environment Minister George Heyman to start a BC environmental assessment process. I believe they still have that option.

Another indicator that BC has put away its “tool kit” is that the BC government has ignored its ability to intervene as a party in support of litigants trying to stop the project. Whereas in the first round of court challenges, the NDP government in BC injected itself as an intervenor and party supporting challenges to TMX, now they are MIA.

So what are the remaining cases?

They fall into two categories: those challenging the sufficiency of the consultations with First Nations, and those pursuing the protections of the marine environment, particularly the highly endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales. In September, the Federal Court of Appeal was asked to allow both kinds of challenges to go forward.

The court allowed most of the appeals that related to consultations, approving requests from the Coldwater Indian Band, Squamish Nation, Tsleil-Waututh Nation, and a coalition of First Nations in B.C.’s Fraser Valley. (Since then the Upper Nicola Band, the Stk’emlupsemc Te Secwepemc announced they had made deals with TMX and were withdrawing from the case). Link

But the court rejected most of the appeals related to the environmental impacts. These included requests from the Tsleil-Waututh Nation as well as the challenges from Raincoast Conservation Foundation and Living Ocean, both represented by lawyers from Ecojustice – including brilliant constituent and Pender Island resident, Margot Venton.

In early November, all these groups filed a request with the Supreme Court of Canada for leave to appeal the September rejection by the Federal Court. That request is still pending – as is the consultation hearing with the federal Court of Appeal. Link

So the court challenges are a long way from over. Much remains to be tested.

In the meantime, one of the more substantive changes is that the pipeline is no longer owned and promoted by Texas fossil fuel pipeline owners. It is owned by us. That makes it even more galling. Recently a local indigenous leader told me her community has been “bombarded” with offers of millions to “abandon our principles and accept the pipeline.”

It is unconscionable that there are millions to pressure First Nations to cave to the pipeline, but not enough to ensure clean drinking water.

The conflict on Wet’suwet’en territory deserves more space this morning. Just to say BC Green Interim leader and my MLA, Adam Olsen, visited the Wet’suwet’en leadership this weekend to see how we can de-escalate tensions, while Green MP Paul Manly is making his way to the blockade – a 5 kilometre hike in minus 40 today to communicate the opposition of the Green Party of Canada to the Coastal Gas pipeline and offer our solidarity with the hereditary chiefs standing on their rights to say no.

Thanks and love,

Elizabeth

This weekly blog is published by Elizabeth’s EDA in Saanich-Gulf Islands. You can sign up for it here.

The post Good Sunday Morning – January 19 appeared first on Elizabeth May.

“Yesterday, Parliament passed a Liberal motion declaring a climate emergency. Today, Prime Minister Trudeau worsened the climate crisis with infrastructure destined to expand and prolong oil sands emissions,” said Ms.May. “This announcement represents cynicism and hypocrisy at a level that is quite breathtaking.

“We cannot achieve our Paris commitment to keep global average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C, the level required to ensure that we continue to have a livable world, and build a pipeline.”

Ms. May described Prime Minister Trudeau’s promise to invest pipeline profits in clean energy projects as a cynical bait and switch that would fool no one. “If you’re serious about fighting climate change, you invest public funds in renewable energy. You don’t invest them in a bitumen pipeline,” she said. “And there’s no guarantee that this pipeline will ever turn a profit anyway – in fact it almost certainly won’t.”

Ms. May predicted that the project would face new court challenges from Indigenous groups who still have not been adequately consulted and from environmental groups. “This decision pushes our endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales closer to extinction.”

“We’re in a climate emergency that requires us to start rapidly reducing the use of fossil fuels,” said Ms. May. “The pipeline expansion requires the increases in fossil fuel production in Canada. No amount of spin can square that circle.”

The post Breathtaking cynicism and hypocrisy in pipeline decision, says Elizabeth May appeared first on Elizabeth May.

The twists and turns in the saga of the Kinder Morgan pipeline just took a turn for the seriously weird today, but the path has never been clear.

The Alberta oil sands lie under thousands of square kilometers of boreal forest, wetland and muskeg. Bitumen is a viscous substance found in small concentrations amid the rock and soil. It is either mined out from huge open pits, or pumped out through in situ production, injecting hot water deep into the ground to loosen it. Either way, the resulting product highly polluting, very expensive to produce and of low value. Bitumen is a solid. To be refined, bitumen must undergo costly upgrading. Bitumen, being both low value and expensive to produce, would never have been developed without government subsidies, with the lowest royalty rates in the world at 1% and massive federal subsidies of several billion/year.

Before the 2008 global financial crisis, there were upgraders and refineries being planned. But when the recession hit, those investments, along with any new oil sands mines, retreated. When the economy recovered, oil sands expansion came back. But not the upgraders and refineries. Instead, for the first time, industry began to promote pipelines. Keystone was the first pipeline proposed to run north-south to take Canadian bitumen to other countries for processing.

Since bitumen is a solid, there is nothing logical about proposing to move it through a pipeline. Stirring in fossil fuel condensate (essentially naptha) creates a mixture sufficiently liquid to flow through a pipeline, without the expense of upgrading it to synthetic crude. The resulting mix of condensate (called diluent) and bitumen is called dilbit. And it is very challenging to clean up. The 2010 dilbit spill in Kalamazoo, Michigan was the first time regulators realized dilbit behaved very differently than conventional crude. The diluent is highly toxic and volatile. Diluent separated from bitumen and bitumen sank to the river bottom.

By the 2011 election, pipelines had become a political issue. Former prime minister, Conservative Stephen Harper, an Albertan who stood four-square for fossil fuel development, opposed any pipelines heading to the British Columbia coastline. Harper’s position was that Canada should not export bitumen to countries with lower environmental standards for refineries than Canada.

Within months of that election, difficulties in gaining US permits for Keystone led to an entirely new position. With Harper’s support, Enbridge proposed a pipeline to Kitimat on the BC coast. In 2013, Texas-based Kinder Morgan asked to build a second pipeline more or less along the lines of the Transmountain pipeline purchased from a Canadian company from Alberta to Burnaby, not far from Vancouver BC. Kinder Morgan’s pipeline expansion would be 100% dilbit for export. It would increase tanker traffic, loaded with dilbit, seven-fold.

To grease the gears for pipeline approval, Harper gutted environmental laws. The resulting environmental review of the Kinder Morgan expansion was the worst in Canadian history. No longer reviewed by our environmental assessment agency, the pipeline was before the National Energy Board. Intervenor rights, such as cross examination of industry witnesses, were eliminated. Many intervenors withdrew alleging the process was “rigged.”

In the 2015 election campaign, Justin Trudeau pledged that no project could be approved based on such an inadequate process. Trudeau promised evidence-based decisions, respect for indigenous rights, the end to fossil fuel subsidies and an aggressive climate plan.

In 2016, the Liberals turned down the Enbridge pipeline due to the court ruling the previous government violated indigenous rights. Simultaneously, Trudeau announced support for the Kinder Morgan pipeline. In doing so, he violated election promises to respect indigenous rights, to base decisions on evidence, and to pursue real climate action. Having approved Kinder Morgan, he and his ministers became increasingly pro-pipeline.

Meanwhile fifteen different court cases were working through the Federal Court of Appeal. The new BC government raised its concerns about the threat of a dilbit spill and to survival of the endangered southern Resident Killer Whales. In March, I was one of the several hundred people arrested protesting the Kinder Morgan pipeline. As opposition built in British Columbia, Trudeau insisted the pipeline was in the national interest and must be built. On April 8th, Kinder Morgan upped the ante and demanded the federal government remove the uncertainty created by all the court challenges to the project by May 31st.

Astonishingly, the government announced on May 29th that the Government of Canada will buy the existing Transmountain pipeline. Canada will pay $4.5 billion for those existing assets, valued by Kinder Morgan in 2007 at $550 million. As well, the Trudeau administration says it will get the controversial expansion pipeline built. Kinder Morgan had pegged those costs at $7.4 billion, and that is just the beginning of federal liabilities. With this, Trudeau’s election promise to end fossil fuel subsidies is violated in spectacular fashion.

We await the court decisions. This battle is a long way from over.

The post Opinion: I was arrested for protesting against Canada’s pipeline – and the battle is far from over appeared first on Elizabeth May.

Mr. Speaker, I am reminded of something I was asked to say by one of my constituents, the Honourable Pat Carney. She used to be the federal minister of energy. She asked me to please mention that there is no oceans protection plan, that there seems to be an oceans protection wish list. She would like to see a plan.

I hope my hon. colleague from Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo will not mind if I correct something that came up in an earlier part of the debate, which is the idea that bitumen moving by train represents a threat. Solid bitumen moving by rail can neither spill nor catch fire. It does not represent a threat.

I respect the work of my friend from Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. However, I wanted to put on the record as well that there is a very strongly worded letter that was sent to the Prime Minister and Premier Horgan from Tsartlip First Nation, which is within the boundaries of my riding. I respect Tsartlip First Nation enormously on a nation-to-nation basis. They have a specific set of treaties members may have heard of from southern Vancouver Island called the Douglas treaties. They have not been consulted at all, and the shipping lanes for the tankers loaded with dilbit go right through their treaty-protected territory.

I wonder if my hon. colleague has any comments.

Cathy McLeod – Member for Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo

Mr. Speaker, I would like to note that if there is transport by train, if they are concerned about bitumen in the ocean they need to also be concerned about bitumen in the rivers, which is much more likely when there is transport by train than transport by pipeline. We actually want to prevent these. However, here we are fighting the NDP and the Green, both in the province of British Columbia and throughout Canada. They fight against the pipeline when it is going to go to refineries, but they do not worry about all those tankers going down the St. Lawrence. We have not heard a peep about those. Now there is not a peep about the pipeline; it is all about the ocean.

I do not think it really matters what it is, they are simply going to argue against it because they do not want oil extracted from the oil sands for the benefit of all Canadians.

The post Tsartlip First Nation has not been consulted at all appeared first on Elizabeth May.

Mr. Speaker, there have been a lot of claims made, even here today in the House, about the jobs that would be created by Kinder Morgan, but there is no evidence to back up those claims.

There is no evidence because the National Energy Board refused to hear the evidence of Unifor. The largest union in the oil sands, Unifor went before the NEB to point out that building Kinder Morgan will cost Canadian jobs. The NEB refused to hear that evidence. Could the Prime Minister tell us, on what independent study is he basing the claim that Kinder Morgan creates more jobs than it kills.

Justin Trudeau – Prime Minister

Mr. Speaker, when it comes to the environment and the economy, we know the two things go together. That is central to the national interest. In regard to energy and pipelines, there are three elements that need to work together. First, we need to get our resources to markets overseas safely and securely. Second, we put forward a historic, world-class oceans protection plan to protect our coasts, and third, we put forward a real plan to reduce carbon emissions and meet our Paris targets.

We cannot get any of the three without getting all three. That is what our government understands.

The post What is the basis for claiming Kinder Morgan is a major job creator? appeared first on Elizabeth May.

“As an intervenor in the NEB hearings on the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain expansion project, I was the only MP to appear before the NEB to make a final argument. I have now submitted my concerns to the special ministerial panel ahead of its recommendation to Cabinet,” Ms. May said.

“Trans Mountain has not been reviewed by any regulatory body or agency to assess if it is in Canada’s economic interest. In response to a challenge by UNIFOR, the NEB refused to consider the economy, job creation or economic benefit stating it was beyond the scope of the hearing,” Ms. May said.

“On top of this, Liberal campaign promises included respectful nation to nation relationships with First Nations; evidence-based decision-making; science-based decision-making; and action to reduce greenhouse gases. Should the Trans Mountain pipeline be approved, the Trudeau administration will violate all four of these promises.

“Transporting diluted bitumen to the coast for tanker transport to offshore refineries is simply not worth the environmental risk for an unproven claim of economic benefits. Canadians expect this government to fix our environmental review process and say no to dilbit pipelines and tankers.”

The deadline to complete a public questionnaire or email comments for submission to the special panel is Friday, Sept. 30. The final Cabinet decision on the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline project is expected on or before Dec. 19, 2016.

Read Ms. May’s submission to the special panel and her intervenor testimony transcript here.

The post Elizabeth May files submission with Kinder Morgan pipeline review panel; public input deadline Friday appeared first on Elizabeth May.

Elizabeth May, Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands and Leader of the Green Party of Canada, Jane Sterk, Leader of the Green Party of British Columbia, and Adriane Carr, Vancouver City Councillor with the Green Party of Vancouver and Deputy Leader of the Green Party of Canada all joined forces today to say “No” to Texas-based Kinder Morgan’s project of twinning the Trans Mountain Pipeline between Edmonton and Burnaby, taking its capacity from 300,000 barrels of diluted bitumen per day to 850,000 barrels per day.

“Kinder Morgan wants to nearly triple the capacity of the pipeline. This is an environmental threat not only because consuming all this oil will aggravate climate change, but also because the risks of oil spills are unacceptably high. More than 100,000 litres of light crude oil was spilled at Kinder Morgan’s terminal in Abbotsford, BC, last January.

“The first round of Kinder Morgan expansion allowed off-shore buyers with tankers to out-bid the last remaining lower mainland refinery at Burnaby. We are so eager to ship out unrefined bitumen, at great environmental risk, that we are ignoring the fact that the local economy is also short-changed,” added May.

“This is an ‘old economy’ project,” said Jane Sterk, Leader of the Green Party of British Columbia. “We don’t need more supertanker traffic in the Vancouver Harbour. What we need is to build a new renewable-energy-based economy that will create good jobs, protect our environment and establish greater long-term energy security. ”

“As a Vancouver Councillor, I have been proactive in ensuring that the City of Vancouver has taken a leadership role in opposing Kinder Morgan’s pipeline expansion”, added Adriane Carr. “Our city needs parties at the provincial and federal levels, where the decision on Kinder Morgan’s plans will be made, to step up to the plate. Only the Green Party has done so, declaring its opposition to Kinder Morgan’s plans at all three political levels. I hope this moves the NDP and the Liberals, both of which are waffling, to join us in saying ‘No’ to all the pipeline and tanker projects that threaten our economy andenvironment.”

The post The Edmonton-Vancouver Pipeline Expansion Should be Stopped appeared first on Elizabeth May.

“With the huge appetites of super refineries in India and China, the Canadian Chevron refinery will be out-bid by foreign companies, and will no longer be able to secure feed.  This would inevitably result in closure and a loss of jobs for highly-skilled Canadian workers,” said Green MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands Elizabeth May.

“The NEB has ignored the fact that there is a tanker moratorium on the BC coast. The shipping of oil from Burnaby was grandfathered back in 1972 but expanding tanker traffic fivefold while shipping out Canadian jobs with the crude has got to stop,” added May.

The Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline currently transports crude oil and refined products from Edmonton to the Greater Vancouver Area and Puget Sound, with the main line terminating at the Burnaby terminal.  Crude oil is used to feed the existing Chevron refinery in Burnaby or is shipped overseas by tankers via the Westridge marine terminal in Port Metro Vancouver.  The Chevron refinery in Burnaby was opened in 1935, and currently refines crude oil into petroleum products like gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and asphalt, supplying roughly one third of transportation fuel to BC’s Lower Mainland.

“The problem is that Canadian jobs are not taken into account when the National Energy Board evaluates pipelines for the export of crude oil,” said May.  “We should be securing our own domestic supply of oil, not shipping it overseas.”

Russ Day, a spokesman with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP), said Chevron recently lost out in a bid 20,000 barrels a day of crude from the Kinder Morgan pipeline, which represents over a third of the refinery’s maximum capacity.  Mr. Day has said the union, which represents about 140 workers at the Chevron refinery, has been told to expect reduced operations in March.

Kinder Morgan Canada is also considering asking the National Energy Board for approval to twin the Trans Mountain Pipeline, more than doubling its capacity from 300,000 barrels a day to 700,000 barrels a day.  If the entire volume is open for international bidding, Chevron, with its maximum capacity of 55,000 barrels a day, will most certainly be outbid. With increased pipeline capacity, less crude refined for local markets at the Burnaby refinery, and more oil being shipped out of the Westridge marine terminal, tanker traffic leaving Port Metro Vancouver can be expected to increase substantially.

“The Green Party of Canada, along with the CEP and countless other stakeholders, has repeatedly expressed our need for a national energy strategy.   Without a comprehensive and collaborative national policy that includes energy security, competitiveness, renewable energy, greenhouse gas management, Canadian jobs will continue to be eliminated, our resources will continue to be exported, and our ecosystems will continue to be in danger,” said May.

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