Dogwood

Today, police and Trans Mountain contractors arrived at the Holmes Creek camp in the Brunette River in Burnaby.

Armed private security destroyed the camp that has been standing strong since August, and logging crews are preparing to cut magnificent cottonwood trees next to a salmon stream full of eggs waiting to hatch.

Trans Mountain vice president David Safari swore under oath that the company could not cut trees in this area at this time of year because of the risk to fish.

But here they are. Bulldozing unceded Indigenous land and threatening sacred salmon rivers. And for what? To build a carbon bomb of a pipeline experts are lining up to say is no longer needed. And they’re doing it with billions of our tax dollars. Tell them to stop.

It’s hard to write this. I actually had something different planned for you today: an update about a raft of encouraging new reports — including from the Liberal government’s own agencies — that fatally undermine our opponents’ arguments for building this pipeline:

Trans Mountain is not needed: there is more than enough pipeline capacity without Trans Mountain or Keystone XL. [1]

Trans Mountain is not viable: the project will lose money for taxpayers under every realistic scenario [2], and will even lose money for oil companies. [3]

It’s official: Trudeau has to choose between climate action and building Trans Mountain. We’ve been saying this for years, but now it’s the Canada Energy Regulator delivering the news — the same agency that recommended Trudeau approve the project. [4]

These reports aren’t gathering dust in some dark corner of the internet — they’re making headlines. When top Globe and Mail columnists are saying the ‘pipeline era is over’ and calling Trans Mountain ‘Canada’s white elephant,’ you know alarm bells are ringing for Liberal strategists in Ottawa.

The Liberal government is being forced to face some hard truths. Make sure they can’t look away: send a message now and tell them to cancel Trans Mountain.

I would be devastated about what happened today in the Brunette River whether Trans Mountain was going to make money for Big Oil and the Canadian government or not. But even economic arguments for the project are in the toilet, and the fact that our government is wilfully ignoring clear evidence of this as it tramples Indigenous rights, and destroys our shared home and future, has me humming with rage.

What to do with that anger? The case to cancel this project has never been stronger, so send the federal government a message right now. You can also follow land defenders on social media for the latest updates and how you can help. And stay ready for more action alerts from us — now is our moment to put this project on ice.

With rage and hope,

Alexandra

[1] https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/reassessment-need-trans-mountain-pipeline-expansion-project
[2] https://www.pbo-dpb.gc.ca/en/blog/news/RP-2021-035-S–trans-mountain-pipeline-financial-economic-considerations-update–pipeline-trans-mountain-considerations-financieres-economiques-mise-jour
[3] https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/reassessment-need-trans-mountain-pipeline-expansion-project
[4] https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/11/24/canada-energy-regulator-projects-there-may-be-no-need-for-trans-mountain-expansion.html

Thanks for all you do,

The No Tankers team

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