By Greg Fry

Anti-pipeline group: Kinder Morgan expansion won’t happen without consent from BC First Nations

May 2, 2018 | 11:40 AM

KAMLOOPS — Without the consent of local First Nations in British Columbia, there will be no Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

The Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion (TAATSE) made that declaration at the special assembly of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) on unceded Algonquin territory in Gatineau, Quebec Wednesday.

It was a show of solidarity of First Nations from across Canada, said Chief Judy Wilson of the Neskonlith Indian Band, who noted a lot of questions focused around Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s insistence that the pipeline will be built.

“And there has been no consent of our Indigenous people who are the proper title holders,” she said, noting government and industry needs more than the 30 agreements the company has obtained from B.C. bands so far.

“More than two-thirds have not provided any form of consent. Seven have filed legal challenges to the project,” added the TAATSE.

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Wilson said the pipeline would go through 500 kilometres of “our territory and they have not had any engagement with our proper title holders, which are 10,000 Secwepemc people.”

She also said as a public “we need to be conscious and look at climate change and global warming because this fossil fuel, oil-dependent industry is one of the major factors and there’s no way the federal government can say those emissions will be controlled.”

Wilson also echoed a call by the TAATSE for an independent investigation into what it calls a “rigged process.”

“Thanks to federal government whistleblowers, there is clear evidence that the Trudeau government had already secretly approved the pipeline while continuing to go through the motions of consulting First Nations.”