Seven arrested after occupation of Kinder Morgan drilling barge

Seven activists led by We Wai Kai Hereditary Chief Geh-Soh-Giliach (Dan Wallace) have been taken into custody after occupying an offshore geotechnical barge moored near the Westridge Marine Terminal on Burrard Inlet in Tsleil-Waututh Nation traditional territory.

The barge, working under contract to Kinder Morgan, was conducting drilling operations in preparation for the proposed expansion of the terminal to increase crude oil shipments from the Alberta tarsands.

On noon on Sunday, four activists shut down operations on the barge. On Monday, at 11 a.m., a few hours after the occupation team was boosted by three new members, a heavily armed Burnaby RCMP team boarded the barge and took the seven into custody.

Sparrow Anderson is a member of Caretakers of Burnaby Mountain, and has taken part in the ongoing fight against the expansion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline. Anderson contacted Windspeaker as the arrest was taking place.

The action took place on short notice, she said.

“A couple of days ago, a friend contacted me and said there was a barge [at the current site] with lights on, and it looked like there was drilling going on. I put the word out,” Anderson said.

When Wallace approached the vessel on Sunday, there were three employees on board, Anderson said.

“They read out the security notice that they had to stay 100 metres from the barge. But [Wallace and his team] boarded anyway.”

Wallace’s partner, Shannon Hecker, said the circumstances of the barge protest/takeover are complex.

The action was authorized by Tsleil-Waututh Hereditary Chief Tulsii'm Kia'palanexw, but he was unable to take part in the operation. Tulsii'm Kia'palanexw gave Wallace the authority to act in his place, she explained.

Complicating the picture is the fact that the Tsleil-Waututh elected council has distanced itself from the barge takeover. From a media release issued late Sunday:

"The actions represent individual considerations, not those of the Tsleil-Waututh government. While we respect all those opposed to the expansion and their perspectives on the best way to voice that opposition, the Tsleil-Waututh Nation government will continue to oppose the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project by all legal means necessary."

Both sides agree that Kinder Morgan has failed to undertake the necessary consultation with the Indigenous people in Coast Salish territory.

Last May, elected chief Maureen Thomas stated that her Nation voted unanimously to oppose the pipeline expansion, which would increase the capacity to 900,000 barrels per day of heavy oilsands bitumen from Alberta.

Tsleil-Waututh has a Jan. 22 court date in the Federal Court of Appeal to challenge the regulatory process undertaken by the National Energy Board to evaluate the Kinder Morgan/Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion proposal.

To reinforce their authority, the release noted: “Under the Indian Act, the elected chief and council govern the Tsleil-Waututh Nation.”

Hecker said that was something the hereditary chiefs took under consideration.

“They say they are operating ‘outside the authority of the imposed colonial governance system,’” she said. “I wasn’t there personally to witness it, but I am receiving [realtime] Facebook communications. Right now, I am organizing people to go down to the Burnaby RCMP headquarters to provide ‘jail support’.”

Shortly after noon Monday, Burnaby RCMP issued a news release.
“Today, the Burnaby RCMP with the assistance of the Lower Mainland Emergency Response Team, arrested seven protestors at the Westridge Marine Terminal where permitted, geo-technical test drilling is taking place approximately 100 metres off shore,” the release stated.

At 1 p.m., RCMP media spokesman, Sgt. Major John Buis, told Windspeaker the custodial status of the seven suspects had not been determined.

“If they meet certain requirements, they will be released on a promise-to-appear,” he explained. “By law, we can release them. I don’t know what each individual’s situation is, but that is the normal plan.”

In the event of a political protest, individual suspects may indicate they will not abide by the terms of their release.

“That can be taken into consideration,” Buis said. “That will form part of our investigation, and also our response.”

In their news release, the hereditary chiefs state that they are acting in solidarity with “all Indigenous nations displaced by the Tar Sands,” along the current and proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline routes.
The chiefs noted that direct action is necessary to re-state the sovereignty of Indigenous peoples, who “are most regularly the first displaced, the first poisoned, and the first killed by extractive processes.

“These lands are unceded, these lands are Indigenous. We are putting an end to genocide, ecocide, capitalism, and the colonial process that continues to this day."