Today the Vancouver Board of Trade is hosting a forum on tanker safety and activists are concerned that the whole truth about oil tanker safety may not be heard.

Activists from the Wilderness Committee and No Tanks (a coalition formed to oppose oil tankers in the Burrard Inlet) will be handing out copies of their new publication Oil Tanker Ban – Lets Keep the West Coast Oil Spill Free outside the Vancouver Marriot Downtown at 1128 Hastings Street West at 12:15 PM today. They will be dressed in oil spill clean up gear and handing out copies on the street.

Wilderness Committee campaigner Ben West and Rex Weyler, a Vancouver author and member of the No Tanks group will also be attending the event inside the hotel to try to ensure a meaningful dialogue takes place.

“One has to question the wisdom of allowing a major crude oil terminal to evolve inside a busy harbour and beyond the Second Narrows, an extremely narrow and shallow tidal passage,” said Weyler. "To avoid grounding, the tankers must remain precisely in mid-channel through the bending passage, only 30 seconds away from grounding on the shallows. Once grounded in an ebbing tide, a tanker could easily break apart under its own weight,” said Weyler.

“Crude oil shipments through Vancouver have increased to allow tar sands expansion which is directly linked to oil companies' interests in shipping dirty oil to China. The tar sands is the dirtiest oil project in the world and a source of shame for Canada on the international stage,” said West.

“Misinformation regarding the safety record of double hull tankers, the frequency of oil spills, and the destination of the crude oil passing through Vancouver has already been a problem” said Weyler.

“As the world is still reeling from the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico we are now facing the potential for another disaster right here under our nose. There was never a public process or debate in the House of Commons yet suddenly our coast is at risk and Canada is playing an ever increasing role in facilitating the climate crisis. This is simply unacceptable,” said West.

For more information please contact:

Ben West , Wilderness Committee Healthy Communities Campaigner, 604-710-5340;

Rex Weyler, No Tanks Coordinator, 604-737-4841