PRO-PIPELINE CONVOY ARRIVES

But politicians focused on Quebec

OTTAWA • A convoy of oil workers arrived in Ottawa on Tuesday to deliver a message to the Liberal government about the province’s desperate need for more pipelines. Perhaps fittingly, however, the government’s focus was instead trained on Alberta’s deepest political foe: Quebec.

The long line of semitrucks sat idling on Wellington Street in Ottawa, blocking off the street that passes in front of Parliament as part of a protest by United We Roll, a pro-industry group.

The Ottawa rally marked the final destination for the convoy, which started its journey in Alberta four days ago. Semi trucks were hitched to trailers emblazoned with calls to “build the pipeline” and “kill” Bill C-69, the Liberals’ environmental assessment reforms. Bearded men in fluorescent vests exhaled thick clouds into the cold air and yelled for Ottawa to “open your eyes” to industry struggles.

But, as if drawing directly from Alberta’s deepest political suspicions, MPS were instead focused on Quebec for much of the day, and the ongoing furor over allegations that the Prime Minister’s Office pressured the attorney general to help Montreal-based Snclavalin avoid prosecution on corruption charges. The minister, Jody Wilson-raybould, has quit cabinet and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s principal secretary has resigned.

Haley Wile, a co-founder of United We Roll, brushed off suggestions that the Snclavalin affair was sucking up political oxygen in Ottawa and distracting media from the rally.

“I don’t care about the media,” she said. “I care about breaking down the barriers between provinces.”

Rally organizers said they plan to ask several cabinet ministers, including the Prime Minister’s Office, for meetings to discuss energy policy and Alberta’s pipeline woes. No Liberal MPS attended the rally, although Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier both delivered remarks.

“I didn’t think Justin Trudeau was going to come down and say ‘Let’s get this pipeline built,’” Wile said.

The United We Roll protest is an extension of the intense frustrations felt in Alberta, particularly after a Federal Court of Appeal ruling in August struck down the Trans Mountain pipeline, delaying yet another major oil conduit out of the province.

A shortage of pipeline capacity in the oilpatch has sharply driven down the price of Canadian crude in recent months, pummelling oil producers and prompting the provincial NDP government to call for a mandatory cut in oil output.

Justin Long, a cement worker from Hamilton, Ont., said the Snc-lavalin furor has only helped to underscore the convoy’s concerns with the Trudeau government.

“It just raises awareness. All attention is good attention,” Long said. “We won’t be silenced, we won’t be drowned out by anything.”

For some Albertans, the SNC affair points to the Liberal government’s courting of Quebec voters over an increasingly isolationist West. Those suspicions of Ottawa have only festered after a collapse in oil prices in 2014 left the resource sector reeling.

Patrick King, a rig worker from Red Deer, Alta., who has been unemployed since November, said the downturn in oil prices has caused major stress.

“It’s been a non-stop struggle,” he said.

He said the protest was at least partly tapping into deeper sentiments that Alberta’s industry woes have not been given the attention that they would have received in other provinces.

“I think that Quebec would have their own pipeline, Ontario would have their own pipeline… They would have absolute open taps.”

One bright green placard on Tuesday read: “Hey Trudeau, if SNC was in Alberta would you build us a pipeline?” Another read: “Build pipelines, let Jody speak.”

The pro-pipeline movement has also been tainted by claims that the protest serves as a catch-all for other misgivings, particularly racially charged concerns over immigration policy. Protesters wearing yellow vests on Tuesday decried anything from the United Nations migration pact to Trudeau’s budget deficits to energy legislation.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Prime Minister’s Office said it would not meet with organizers of United We Roll. “We will always support the right of Canadians to be heard, but it is essential that their message not be co-opted by those who spew racist and divisive language,” it said.