Harper's War in the Pipeline: Awaiting Declaration of 'National Interest' for Enbridge and Kinder Morgan

Harper's War in the Pipeline: Awaiting Declaration of 'National Interest' for Enbridge and Kinder Morgan

by C. L. Cook - PacificFreePress.com

It's coming to the sharp end of the stick now for the energy role Canada is expected to play "going forward" as they say. British Columbia is to be the first battlefield in a war against those who would preserve the nation's wild places from coast to coast to coast, protecting the unique natural heritage that makes this place the envy of the world.

First Nations, and their allies, declared "enemies of the state" by the Canadian prime minister's energy man, minister of natural resources, Joe Oliver are targets of what will be a desperate and ugly disintegration of both the nation's Charter of Rights and Freedoms and its environmental viability to sustain nature as known here, and taken for granted. But, they're not the first in the Harper cross-hairs.

Aided and abetted by a deep-pocketed corporate propaganda campaign, the New Canadian Government has launched an all out media blitz on Canadians. It's an effort to convince the population, inculcated with a reverence for the natural wonders of Canada since childhood, it is now in our collective best interest to transform the True North Strong and Free into an environmental sacrifice zone for the benefit of trans-national energy operators bent on feeding the industrial maw of emerging Asia.

The television campaign's effectiveness, in concert with a controversy-tainted travelling Joint Review Panel (JRP) meant to assuage vexed locals in the paths of impending bitumen-laden pipelines, has so far proven insufficient to sway overwhelming opposition to the schemes; especially amongst First Nations in British Columbia.

First Nations' distrust of the Queen's representatives is well-founded. In British Columbia, where most lands taken by the expansive ambitions of Her Majesties' men were never ceded, and where few treaties have been ratified even today, few benefits of the capitalist system have trickled down to them. Poverty and a lack of opportunity are hallmarks on the majority of the province's reserves, (an apartheid-like system set up in and evolving little since the 19th century). The economic desperation of these reserves has too been exploited to split communities in the age-old colonial fashion, using the few who can benefit from collaboration to provide some semblance of legitimacy for the dispossession of the larger community. This odious, all-to-familiar formula is in full bloom now, creating what many in B.C. are calling a second-coming of colonialism.   

In mid-September, minister Oliver made a surprise call to B.C. First Nations leader, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, head of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs. According to Linda Solomon, editor-in-chief of the Vancouver Observer, the request for a meeting, coming after months of no word in response to numerous public manifestations opposing plans to run the pipelines through their territories came as more than a surprise. Phillip says of the subsequent meeting with Oliver;

"It was somewhat of a strange exchange, given the fact  Minister Oliver sat there and repeated by rote, speaking points reflective of the government of Canada’s position on the pipeline issue. We took the opportunity to continue to express our ongoing concerns with respect to these pipeline proposals. My point is there wasn’t any engagement, or dialogue in terms of Minister Oliver saying "What will it take? What are your recommendations?" There was nothing of that nature. He just sat there and repeated his talking points."

But, the bizarre pow wow with Oliver was not to be the only meeting. Grand Chief Phillip also reports a "flurry" of meetings being requested by various ministries, giving him the feeling something big is in the wind. Phillip says;

"We’re somewhat mystified, given the fact that we’ve been pretty much ignored for the last couple of years and suddenly in the 11th hour, given the fact that the JRP report is due at the end of December, we are all of the sudden overwhelmed with this flurry of meeting requests from federal government ministries."

Adding;

"I have a very unsettling feeling that the PM is poised to declare these projects in the national interest, and firstly, he’s gathering information that he hopes to use as to buttress the rationale that will be brought forward when those decisions are made public in terms of green-lighting these projects. Secondly, I believe that concurrently they are ensuring that they have a very robust record of consultations that they would hope to rely on when these matters go to the court, in the event that the Harper government simply ignores the JRP findings and declares these projects in the national interest. That’s my gut feeling. It’s a very  uneasy feeling about this whole affair."

Harper's New Government of Canada has done more though than just marry the nation's interests with trans-national and foreign sovereign energy interests like China's CNOOC, the latter spending billions developing its interests in the Tar Sands, (and beginning to complain, development delays and uncertainty caused by native intransigence are a threat to inter-country relations) it has too gutted, through omnibus Bills C-38 and C-45, environmental protections that would certainly prove a more formidable barrier to the passage of the proposed B.C. pipelines than even the province's daunting topography.

Grand Chief Phillip is now calling for a mass mobilization to stop the government's seeming obsessive determination to ram the pipelines through. Of his meetings with Joe Oliver, Phillip observes;

"[W]hen Oliver began to talk about the Government of Canada's "interest in strengthening environment regulation" I sat there in amazement reflecting on bills C38 and C45, which gutted environmental regulation... it was truly astonishing."

Here history is catching up with the prime minister. Throughout his tenure in Ottawa, Stephen Harper's arrogant, unilateral, top down approach to governance, his dismissal of Canadians' disparate opinions and values, barely concealed contempt of Parliamentary procedure and protocols - the foundations of our democracy, and his steadfast determination to serve the interests of only capital whether from near or afar are conspiring to create a confrontation in British Columbia that may well prove his legacy, more than deal maker to be nation breaker.

Chris Cook serves as managing editor to www.pacificfreepress.com and hosts the weekly public affairs program, Gorilla Radio.