Vancouver CST

Bring Pipeline Fight to the Pumps

Solidarity with Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Constitutional Challenge of Shell’s Tar Sands Mining

3:00pm
- 5:00pm
Tuesday October 23 2012

Vancouver, Unceded Coast Salish Territories – Following the ‘Defend our Coast’ mass mobilization to oppose all tar sands pipelines and tankers, Vancouver residents will be gathering at a local Shell station in solidarity with the constitutional challenge filed by the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) with respect to Shell Canada’s proposed tar sands mine expansion application. The proposed mine would further destroy 12,719 hectares of the Boreal forest and pollute the Muskeg River, both culturally & ecologically significant places. Greenhouse gas emissions from Shell’s mining expansion will escalate climate change, by adding 2.36 mega tonnes of carbon into the air, equaling the addition of roughly 281,000 cars on the road. The mine expansion threatens to produce 100,000 more barrels of dirty crude per day, increasing the drive to build new pipelines like Enbridge Northern Gateway and the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain to export the product.

The Constitutional challenge as presented by the First Nation opposes the expansion of the tar sands mines in their traditional lands in norther Alberta and has the potential to set new precedents to the regulatory process governing tar sands projects. ACFN’s challenge outlines the government’s failure to uphold Treaty 8, and protect their constitutional rights to hunt, fish, and trap, which are threatened by the proposed mine. More information: http://acfnchallenge.wordpress.com/

Rising Tide, Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories is a broad network of people committed to environmental justice by supporting the struggles of directly impacted communities.