Coastal GasLink pipeline protesters block East Vancouver rail crossing
Credit to Author: Scott Brown| Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2020 20:21:27 +0000
Coastal GasLink protesters have blocked a railway crossing on Renfrew Street, between Grandview Highway and Hebb Street, in East Vancouver.
It’s the latest in a series of demonstrations taking place across Canada in support of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs’ fight to stop construction of the pipeline across their traditional territory near Houston, B.C.
Today’s action was organized by a group calling itself Urban Indigenous Sovereigntists, who have set up on the train tracks next to Renfrew station, blocking both vehicle traffic and rail service.
The tracks are used by the Amtrak Cascades passenger train that runs between Vancouver and Portland.
The protest has caused Amtrak to return a Vancouver-bound train to Bellingham, Wash. where passengers will be put on buses to Vancouver.
Amtrak Cascades Train 516 will return to Bellingham (BEL) where it will terminate. Buses will be provided to Vancouver (VAC).
In a press release, the Urban Indigenous Sovereigntists say they have no plans to leave “until the demands coming from Wet’suwet’en Governance are met.”
“We’re gonna be here until we can’t be here anymore,” said protest organizer Natalie Knight.
Knight says the main objective of the blockade is to disrupt freight train service, but understands passenger trains are also being impacted.
“That’s not our main target, but we do recognize that some of the tracks are shared. And so it’s an outcome of the action for sure. But the main target is economic disruption,” said Knight. “We were prepared before the action and gave a heads up to the railway company. So before we arrived on site, we made sure that they knew folks were blocking the lines”.
Coastal GasLink protesters blocked a railway crossing on Renfrew Street, between Grandview Highway and Hebb Street, in East Vancouver. JASON PAYNE/POSTMEDIA/PNG [PNG Merlin Archive]
Coastal GasLink is building a 670-kilometre pipeline from the Dawson Creek area in northern B.C. at an estimated cost of $6.6 billion. The project has the support of 20 elected band councils along the route. All of them have signed benefit agreements with Coastal GasLink.
However, Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs assert title to a vast 22,000-square-kilometre area and say band councils only have authority over reserve lands.
An injunction was enforced earlier this month by the RCMP to give Coastal GasLink access to a work site for the pipeline, which is part of a $40-billion LNG Canada export project in Kitimat.
Coastal GasLink protesters blocked a railway crossing on Renfrew Street, between Grandview Highway and Hebb Street, in East Vancouver. JASON PAYNE/POSTMEDIA/PNG [PNG Merlin Archive]
On Thursday afternoon, protesters calling themselves the Red Braid Alliance for Decolonial Socialism set up a blockade at Canadian Pacific’s rail yard in Port Coquitlam, effectively shutting down east-west rail traffic through Metro Vancouver.
Coastal GasLink protesters blocked a railway crossing on Renfrew Street, between Grandview Highway and Hebb Street, in East Vancouver. JASON PAYNE/POSTMEDIA/PNG [PNG Merlin Archive]
The blockade led to the cancellation of West Coast Express commuter service on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. The protest ended following Friday’s morning rush hour.
On Monday, police in Vancouver and Delta arrested 57 protesters for taking part in blockades at Metro Vancouver ports in defiance of a court injunction.
The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority had received the injunction so port operations could resume in Vancouver and Delta.
Protesters also disrupted events at the B.C. legislature in Victoria this week and briefly occupied Attorney General David Eby’s Kitsilano riding office.
Meanwhile, a rail blockade on Tyendinaga Mohawk territory near Belleville, Ont. that has shut down rail services across Eastern Canada, is in its 10th day.
Canada’s Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller is meeting with Mohawk Nation leaders today to discuss the blockade.
With files from The Canadian Press