NEWS RELEASE about Direct ActionEnvironmentIndigenous posted on January 10, 2013 by edoherty
Idle No More, Downtown East Side Community Groups Endorse Enbridge Noise Demonstration
Growing list of grassroots groups demand consent not consultation
Media Release
January 10th, 2013
VANCOUVER—Public hearings on the Enbridge pipeline begin in Vancouver this Monday and will be greeted by a broadening spectrum of community members determined to voice opposition in the streets and inside the hearing room. Building on the trend set in Victoria of more people showing up in the streets than in designated viewing rooms, a large noise demonstration will march through downtown Vancouver in support of the self-determination of Indigenous communities and their rights to say no to oil and gas pipelines across their territories.
Communities from all across British Columbia have rejected the proposed oil sands bitumen pipeline. However, the Harper government is doing everything it can to ignore the demands of affected communities and undermine democratic process. In light of the recent passing of Bills C-38 and C-45, many feel the review process is only important as another venue to show the strength of public opposition.
“My home community will have the pipeline going right through it,” said Beatrice Starr from the Heiltsuk Nation, an elder and member of the Downtown East Side Power of Women Group. “It will affect our waters and our the food we rely on to live. It hurts me to think that my grandchildren may never be able to eat the same fish that I ate growing up. This pipeline will destroy our homelands.”
The environmental impacts of a project like the pipeline—from potential oil spills to its contribution to climate change—are matched by its social and economic impacts on affected communities: displacement, loss of traditional economic activities, and undermining self-determination. Around the world, Indigenous and other frontline communities—those least responsible for today’s global ecological crisis—are hit hardest by climate change, and burdened most by the corporations causing this crisis.
“For the past thirty years,” Starr continued, “I have lived in the downtown eastside and I am seeing how, like pipelines, condos and gentrification are pushing poor people out of our homes and our community. Big business - whether big oil or big real estate developers - has no concern for communities.”
This event is being organized by Rising Tide - Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories, a grassroots environmental justice group committed to fighting the root causes of climate change and the interconnected destruction of land, water, and air.
30-
WHEN: Monday January 14th, 5:00 pm
WHERE: Victory Square, Cambie & Hastings Street, Vancouver, Unceded Coast Salish Territories
WHO: Public, child and family friendly event.
Rising Tide Media Spokespeople
Eric Doherty (also providing oral statement at hearings) - 604-346-6994
Maryam Adrangi – 604-762-0536
To get in touch with endorsers please email Sean Devlin sean@yeslab.org
On Facebook: http://on.fb.me/ZLnKKO
On Twitter: www.twitter.com/risingtide604
Website: risingtide.resist.ca
Endorsed by:
Access Natural Healing
Alliance for People’s Health
Ancestral Pride Ahousaht Sovereign Territory
Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign
Canadian Autoworkers Union British Columbia (CAW)
Canadian Foundation for Creative Development
Council of Canadians
Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council
Downtown Eastside Not for Developers Coalition
Downtown East Side Power of Women Group
Food Not Bombs
Fractured Land (Documentary & Transmedia Project)
Fraser Valley Peace Council
Home Health Care
Idlenomore Founders (Jess Gordon, Sylvia McAdam Saysewahum, Nina Wilson, and Sheelah McLean)
Indigenous Action Movement
Indigenous Environmental Network
Justice for Mother and Child Canada
Kootenays For A Pipeline-Free B.C. (Kootenay to Kitimat Caravan)
Lhe Lin Liyin (Grassroots Wet’suwet’en)
Mining Justice Alliance
No One Is Illegal - Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories
Occupy Vancouver Environmental Justice Group
Pedal Revolutionary Radio
Peoples' Health Movement
Pipedreams Project
PIPE UP Network
Purple Thistle
Rhizome Cafe
Simon Fraser Public Interest Research Group
Social Coast
South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy
Spartacus Books
Stop the Pave
StopWar.ca
Streams of Justice
Unist'ot'en Camp
Vancouver Catholic Worker
Vancouver Island Community Forest Action Network
Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group
Vancouver Raging Grannies
Vancouver Status of Women
Vancouver-West End Greens
The site for the Vancouver local of The Media Co-op has been archived and will no longer be updated. Please visit the main Media Co-op website to learn more about the organization.