Blockade ends peacefully

Community members of the Kelly Lake Cree Nation ­ located on the BC and Alberta border ­ were demonstrating on June 21st against oil and gas activity close to their community when events turned awry and one protestor was nearly hit by a truck.
Protester and band consultant, Clayton Anderson, said he was simply instructing a trucker to use an alternate route, when the trucker became angry and tried to drive through a back road, almost hitting him in the process.
"There was a road on to the side and supporters and the Elder were parked up there with his family, grandkids and whatnot, watching from up there," he said. A trucker told Anderson to remove the bystanders from the road so he could drive through it, whereas Anderson responded by asking the trucker to use a junction designed for oil and gas truckers to turn around. The trucker insisted and almost ran him over, Anderson claims.
Anderson said he's demanding a public apology from Advantage ­ which is the company that the trucker works for ­ after which he is willing to let the matter slide.
Tribal Chief of Kelly Lake Cree Nation, Chief Clifford Calliou, said the situation demonstrates the lack of respect by industry workers for people living in the community.
"There's no respect, they don't have any respect for the community," he said. "These truckers don't obey the speed limits, our objective is to make people aware, to make it safer for us."
As for the disaster drill and protest itself, Anderson said protestors disapprove of the methods used by the oil and gas companies to dispose of contaminated fluids and the affect this has on the community's water quality.
They also do not approve of the amount of traffic going through the community and the lack of job opportunities for band members by the oil and gas companies drilling the resources from the land.
"We're concerned about a potential disaster ever happening. There's no emergency response plan in place that industry or government has ever tried to develop with Kelly Lake," Anderson said.
He points to an incident that occurred last December, when a worker from the industry improperly emptied contaminated fluids into a frozen dugout.
"So this Spring, when it all melted and turned back into a dugout, it ended up killing quite a few birds and ducks in there. So we had ducks and birds die there, and the Kelly Lake people who go hunting and all this kind of stuff, it was one of the hunters that noticed these dead birds," Anderson said.
The oil and gas company responsible for the dumping was informed and workers attempted to clean the area, but according to Anderson, some band members are dissatisfied with the way the cleanup was carried out.
"How it's being handled right now is the enforcement part, we don't want to press charges against them right now because we're trying to initiate an agreement on how spills and contamination should be handled," he said.
"So we're trying to formalize an informal process with the oil and gas companies, because we don't want to get punished by the oil and gas people for being concerned."
Anderson said the band's economy rests with the oil and gas company because the band itself is not recognized by the federal government and does not have any infrastructure.
"We don't have any funding, grants, programs, or services, so all we rely on is the money we make from the oil and gas company. But that doesn't mean we're going to let them do anything and everything they want," he said.
The protestors want to let the government know they are ready to begin negotiations rather than go through a lengthy court process to address their concerns.
"Government has never respected us and industry never respected or recognized Kelly Lake, so they're not dealing with us appropriately," he explained.
He said their main concerns are the health and safety of the Kelly Lake community residents due to all the industrial activity of the oil and gas companies in the area.
"We're still standing up to them and telling them we want all spills reported. And we want all the contamination dealt with, because we know what's happening. Our water is already being impacted. We want water testing done and we want something done about the water. So that's our position," he stated.
Chief Calliou states that if the disaster drill and protest fail to get the attention of government and industry officials to meet and properly consult with band members, they plan to take further action.
"The next step is ­ if this doesn't work ­ we are going to do a larger shutdown of the roads," he said. "And hopefully it will bring industry leaders, government and the First Nations being affected, to the table to deal with the problems."
The band ­ whose community is located two kilometers west of the British Columbia border and 56 kilometers south of Dawson Creek ­ has been trying to settle their land claim with the federal government since 1996. Band members follow a traditional hereditary governance system with a tribal chief and headman in charge of decision-making and each family represented within the leadership.