Thousands march to protest Canada pipeline expansion project

BURNABY, British Columbia — Thousands of demonstrators marched Saturday to speak out against a pipeline expansion project that would nearly triple the flow of oil from Canada’s tar sands to the Pacific Coast.

Indigenous leaders led the march in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby after telling the crowd the day’s event was a celebration of unity, but they should be prepared in the future to “cross the line” with potential arrests.

“Our spiritual leaders today are going to claim back Burnaby Mountain,” Rueben George, a member of Tsleil-Waututh Nation, said before the crowd marched to the steady beat of drums and chants toward a site near Kinder Morgan’s storage tank farm in Burnaby.

Many protesters carried signs that read, “Water is life,” “No consent, no pipeline,” and “Keep it in the ground.” Others hoisted inflatable orcas and beat drums.

The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion by the Canadian division of Texas-based Kinder Morgan would dramatically increase the number of oil tankers traveling the shared waters between Canada and Washington state. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau approved the project in late 2016, saying it was in Canada’s best interest.

Kinder Morgan said it is moving ahead with preparatory work at two terminals in Burnaby but still needs to obtain numerous local permits and federal condition approvals to begin construction.

The project has drawn legal challenges and opposition from environmental groups and Native American tribes as well as from municipalities such as Vancouver and Burnaby. It’s also sparked a dispute between the provinces of Alberta, which has the world’s third largest oil reserves, and British Columbia.

Opponents say increasing the flow of oil sent by pipeline and boosting the number of ships to transport it would increase the risks of oil spills and potential impacts to fish, orcas and other wildlife.