MIXING WITH ‘RADICAL’ ACTIVISTS CAUTIONARY TALE FOR GOVERNMENT
Document shows B.C., green groups’ ties are inappropriate, Claudia Cattaneo says
There’s been lots of talk about mass action to disrupt the construction of Kinder Morgan Canada Inc.’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. But a leaked document outlining a strategy by a coalition of environmental groups to fight the project shows how far they are prepared to go to orchestrate outrage.
The proposed action plan — dubbed KM Action Hive Proposal — was leaked to British Columbia’s opposition Liberals and obtained by the Financial Post.
Given what the green coalition, known as the Kinder Morgan Strategy Group, is prepared to do, the Liberals say its close relationship with NDP/Green government is inappropriate.
Premier John Horgan’s government is “normalizing interactions with radical environmentalists,” Liberal MLA Jas Johal said in an interview. The document “speaks to how organized these folks really are.”
In the B.C. legislature in recent days, Liberal MLAs have called out Environment Minister George Heyman for attending a retreat on Bowen Island on Jan. 30 with about 40 environmentalists to kick off “opportunities for mass action” such as those proposed in the document.
On the same day, Heyman announced the province would limit the amount of diluted bitumen that can be transported by pipeline or rail until it can do further research on spill cleanup, triggering a trade war with Alberta because it would have further delayed construction the project. Reaction from environmental organizations like Stand.earth praising the move was almost immediate.
Heyman toned down the bitumen plan this week after meetings with federal government officials, but the Liberals still accused him of “reporting back to his activists and agitators” and over-sharing information with “his Bowen Island buddies.”
The four-page KM Action Hive Proposal shines a light on how environmental activists work together for greater impact.
“This group is coming together to support mass popular resistance to construction of the Kinder Morgan pipeline,” the document says. “This is being organized to seize a specific political moment, with construction of the pipeline already underway and requiring mass opposition.”
At the core of the campaign is a supervisory group called the Hive. It has representatives from organizations and grassroots groups and provides support for and shares information about “mass, creative and non-violent direct actions.” It also brings “resources, money, action experience and technical knowhow, capacity and coordination experience.”
The Hive is connected to the Swarm, a collective of subsidiary organizations that contribute legal support, communication, training and materials.
The document urges keeping such structure behind the scenes: “This group is an organizing structure, not a brand. We will not have a brand or presence in public beyond what is necessary to achieve our goals.”
One of its guiding principles is that it supports non-violent direct action and avoids any harm to individuals and “unnecessary damage to property.”
Organizations wanting to join the Hive are required to commit staff time and some financial or in-kind resources. Staff must participate in weekly meetings/ calls. There is no minimum financial requirement as funding is needed “on a rolling basis as support and organizing dictates.”
The strategy even proposes security protocols, such as limiting written action planning and discussions in person when possible.
“Use Signal with disappearing messages on desktop and phone; try to avoid slack, email or texting. If you’re on a call, try to do voice calls from a private location and avoid using speaker phone if it’s just you,” the document says.
Sven Biggs, energy and climate campaigner at Stand.earth, downplayed the document, saying it’s out of date and was put together to guide the establishment of a coalition last fall in anticipation of a pipeline protest last October, which it did. “You are going to continue to see a broad coalition, all sorts of tactics and strategies … we are just going to step up the volume.”
He said the coalition is not concerned that the document was leaked because it wants to be transparent with its activities.
Still, Johal said it’s a concern that the province’s environment minister is “normalizing interaction with groups that wish to shut down our oil and gas industry, and other natural resources industry.”
“It’s a further reminder that the NDP in British Columbia is an urban environmental party and does not take into consideration all the interests in British Columbia.”
Heyman, a former Sierra Club leader himself, has brushed off the criticism, saying he just attended a dinner and a question-and-answer period at the Bowen Island event, not the strategy part. He also said environmentalist Tzeporah Berman, Karen Mahon and Biggs, among others, were in attendance.
Biggs, who participated in the Bowen Island session, said Heyman showed up for about one-and-a-half hours. “Mostly he answered questions from the people who were assembled on the direction that the government was taking,” he said. “That was pretty much it.”
Not long ago, Berman and Mahon were recruited by Alberta’s NDP government to sit on its Oil Sands Advisory Group to provide advice on the implementation of the province’s climate leadership plan in relation to the oilsands. In a way, Alberta’s NDP government was also trying to normalize its relationship with green organizations in an effort to build consensus on oilsands and pipelines. The pair backed out before their term expired and are now strategizing to sink the Trans Mountain project.
It’s a cautionary tale that governments mix with activists at their peril, as Alberta Premier Rachel Notley found out.