B.C. Chapter

When local filmmaker Damien Gillis took his equipment up to B.C.’s north and central coast and got to witness firsthand the humpback whales swimming freely, he almost got a lump in his throat. And that’s hard to do to the burly 31-year-old who looks like a rugby forward and has a baritone voice made for broadcasting.

“I love this province, and my primary function is to serve, through my media work, to highlight issues that I see as being the biggest threats to the environment and public interest in B.C.,” Gillis told the Georgia Straight by phone on February 10. “Along with [long-time radio broadcaster] Rafe Mair, through our new organization [Common Sense Canadian], we are touring the province and really talking about rivers, salmon, and oil tankers and oil pipelines.”

Read the entire article and view these spectacular photos at the link below.

CALGARY -- As oil pipeline giant Enbridge Inc. prepared this week to meet with the most militant of the 40 First Nations and Metis in northern British Columbia straddling its proposed Northern Gateway pipeline corridor, it made public an aboriginal benefits offer so rich it should at least get their attention:

More than $1.5-billion in cash, jobs, business opportunities over the next 30 years and a 10% stake in one of Canada’s most strategic infrastructure projects — a pipeline to whisk Canada’s oil-sands crude to the West Coast so it can be sold to new markets in Asia.

In exchange, the company is looking for support from the 50,000 aboriginals (mostly First Nations, with a smaller number of Metis) affected by the $5.5-billion project, which is being reviewed by regulators for approval in the face of fierce aboriginal opposition.

Read the entire article at the link below.

Canadian authorities have no reliable way of tracking vessels that pass through a zone off the B.C. coast meant to keep out oil tankers, despite reassurances by the Harper government that the zone is strictly monitored, Postmedia News has learned.

The Tanker Exclusion Zone was established in 1988 under a non-binding agreement between the Canadian and U.S. coast guards and the U.S. tanker industry. It was designed to lower the risk of an oil tanker running aground off the coast of British Columbia.

The zone, which runs from southern Alaska to the southern tip of Vancouver Island, applies to tankers carrying oil from the Trans-Alaska pipeline to ports along the U.S. west coast.... Read more »

Join us for this special Canmore event...
B.C.'s Flathead River Valley: Protect It Now!

Please join us for an evening of extraordinary images and speakers, to support permanent protection for B.C.'s Flathead River Valley. The Flathead adjoins Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park and is a key link in the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative.

Speakers include Harvey Locke from the Wild Foundation, Casey Brennan from Wildsight and Sarah Cox from Sierra Club BC.... Read more »

ALGARY - Enbridge will offer aboriginal and Metis groups a stake in the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline, which faces growing opposition from First Nations and environmental groups over the project to ship oilsands crude to the West Coast.

The Calgary-based energy and pipeline giant will be offering First Nations along the pipeline route at least a 10 per cent equity in the $5.5-billion Alberta-to-British Columbia bitumen line, chief executive Pat Daniel said Tuesday.

Enbridge expects talks initiated in November to continue to mid-December, with the deal providing indirect rather than direct financing to the groups.

"I think they are going to be pretty happy with what we work out with them," Daniel told reporters after a presentation at the Chamber of Commerce. "But because we have individual discussions underway, I don't want to go into details of it."

Read the entire story at the link below.