WEDNESDAY
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April 4, 2012
A division of
Vol. 27 No. 27
COMOX VALLEY RECORD Your community. Your newspaper. www.comoxvalleyrecord.com
Pipeline protesters heard loud and clear
CENTRE STAGE AGE
Erin Haluschak Record Staff
MusicFest announces addition of multi-talented Laurie Anderson to lineup. ■ 12
SILVER MEDAL
Darcy Sharpe of Comox won the silver medal for Canada in slopestyle at the FIS Snowboard Junior World Championships in Spain. The 16th FIS Snowboard Junior World Championships wrapped-up March 31 in Sierra Nevada. The slopestyle competition closed out the championships with the biggest Canadian delegation of the week on hand. ... Complete story on ■ 32
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Setting the tone of discontent against a proposed pipeline project, more than 2,200 protesters packed the parking lot of the Comox Recreation Centre Saturday afternoon. Braving chilly weather, people from across Vancouver Island gathered to voice their opinions with signs, chants, songs, dance and speeches outside, while inside the centre, a review panel continued to listen to oral hearings from residents on the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project. “This turnout here is very exciting for us, because we’re all supporting the same cause,” said Andy Everson of the video-online K’ómoks First N a t i o n www.comoxvalleyrecord.com w h o addressed the large crowd. “I know me and my brothers and sisters and aunties, we’re all here to support our northern brothers for what they’re going through and the way they’re being treated by the government, by these big corporations. We really need to stand together, shoulder to shoulder and speak up, and want to send our message, our song, our words to the people in Ottawa, to the people in those big corporations, who really want to take over our territory that we’ve never given up.” The Enbridge Northern Gateway Project is a proposed twopipeline system 1,170 km long, stretching from Bruderheim, AB (north of Edmonton) to a marine terminal in Kitimat, B.C. A strong police presence surrounded the centre, as the the two-day session, which began Friday, of the joint review panel — an independent body that will assess the environmental effects of the project — listened to more than 40 oral statements. “I feel very fortunate to be able to live so close to the ocean and see the beauty of it everyday. I don’t want to wake up one morning and look out my window that all of that beautiful blue water and everything in it has been
THOUSANDS OF PROTESTERS gathered Saturday afternoon, many with signs in hand, at the Comox Recreation Saturday to protest the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Project. PHOTO BY ERIN HALUSCHAK
drenched in thick, black oil,” said 11-year-old Brooklyn Elementary School student Jack Mingue Saturday afternoon, the youngest presenter at the hearing. “Enbridge has had 804 spills in the past 11 years. Can they guarantee us that one of those supertankers are not going to make
805? I just know that this is not the right thing to do, and there has got to be a better way to make Canada more economically developed,” he added to a reception of applause from the standing-room only crowd inside. Jack Rosen, an adventure company owner and experienced
Monday meeting nixed Record Staff Following the stop in Comox, the Joint Review Panel for the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project was scheduled to be in Bella Bella for four days, but plans were cancelled for the Monday session. According to reports, the National Energy Board said they were working out some logistical issues with the community leadership, while the Heiltsuk First Nation noted it was for safety concerns. The panel was scheduled to be
at the Bella Bella Community School until Thursday, as it continues its 14-month hearing tour across B.C. and Alberta. A group of pipeline opponents met the panel members at the airport when they arrived Sunday. According to an update from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA), the Bella Bella hearings began Tuesday at 1 p.m. The transcripts for the Comox hearing are available online through CEAA’s website at gatewaypanel.review-examen.gc.ca. photos@comoxvalleyrecord.com
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kayak tour guide from Salt Spring Island who represented the Sea Kayak Guides Alliance of British Columbia, explained to the panel the pipeline would be severely detrimental to not only the tourism industry, but the health of the marine ecosystem. “I’ve led kayak expeditions from Salt Spring to Alaska twice. I know these waters of the Great Bear Rainforest well. They are extreme, they are pristine, and they exude wildlife. These waters are the essence of British Columbia and its cultural heritage,” he explained. “A bitumen spill would cause massive repercussions to the coast, which in effect, would affect the livelihood of so many who depend on these waters. As a person who evaluates risk everyday in my job, I want to stress from my viewpoint and those 800 sea kayakers who I represent, the inherent risk of this pipeline is not worth the devastating consequences of one spill,” added Rosen. Enbridge president John Car... see THOUSANDS ■ 6