Did you hear about the historic announcement earlier this month about the Save the Fraser Declaration?

Over 130 First Nations chiefs have now signed on to declare the banning of crude oil exports through their traditional territories.

December 1st was a celebration of the fact that the breadth of the declaration was expanded to include all crude oil exports across BC, including Kinder Morgan’s attempts to turn Vancouver Harbour into a tar sands shipping port. This is an important and unprecedented development.

On the evening of December 1, we hosted an inspiring public forum in Vancouver featuring First Nations leaders, environmental allies and Naomi Klein, who helped make the links between the recent victory against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline in the United States and the broader movement for climate justice worldwide.

If you missed the forum or just couldn’t get in to the over capacity venue, you can still watch the archived live stream video at this link. (Stay tuned for high definition video clips from the event, to be released soon.)

So what’s next in the fight against tar sands infrastructure and the causes of climate change?

Well, amazingly, the National Energy Board actually approved an expansion of oil tanker traffic through Burrard Inlet on the very same day as the Save the Fraser Declaration celebration.

They did this with no public hearings in BC and no meaningful opportunity for public engagement in this decision. Furthermore they did not consult with local First Nations who have clearly stated their opposition to increased tanker traffic for export. Local mayors and First Nations have expressed their outrage at this democratic deficit.

Now, as the National Energy Board and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency are about to begin public hearings as part of their Joint Panel Review on the controversial Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline, they have failed to schedule hearings in major cities like Vancouver or Victoria. It is up to this Joint Panel Review, as public servants, to ensure democratic oversight of these kinds of projects, but ultimately the decision rests with our elected officials.

That is why we have set up a letter writing tool to give you the opportunity to share your thoughts with the Prime Minister, Environment Minister, as well as members of the NEB and the Joint Panel Review. You can demand public hearings in your area or just share your concerns about oil tanker exports in general.

The fight against Big Oil won’t be easy. We have won some key victories and our allies are more united than ever. We need your help to fight this fight. If you would like to get more directly involved in this campaign, reply to this email or call our office at (604) 683.8220.

Donations to support our campaign would also be very much appreciated. We need financial support to hold our own information meetings, to print campaign materials and to spread the word through campaign videos. This is the challenge of our generation, and we need all the help we can get.

Thanks and happy holidays,

Ben West | Healthy Communities Campaigner
Wilderness Committee

P.S. You can now sign up for our oil tanker action alert text message service. We have created a service to ensure tankers no longer pass through the Vancouver harbour unnoticed. Subscribe to this service by texting the word “oil” to the number 604-800 9180. You will receive free text messages with details about the name and size of the vessel every time a tanker stops to load up at the Kinder Morgan terminal.