Joint Review Panel Hearings Old Massett, June 1-2, 2012

The National Energy Board’s Joint Review Panel (JRP) community hearings were held in Old Massett on June 1 and 2, 2012. In an attempt to provide you with a sense of what is being said at these hearings, we have selected excerpts from the presenta-tions and will continue to do so through to the end of the hearings in July. For those of you wishing to read the complete text of a statement, it is available on the JRP website: gatewaypanel.review-examen.gc.ca/clf-nsi/prtcptngprcss/hrng-eng.html

“The most obvious concern, although the least likely, is the possibility of a large oil spill such as happened with the Exxon Valdez in Alaska. While numerous experts have testified that the possibility is so small as to be meaningless, I would question the ability of these experts to correctly evaluate every possible situation where every employee that might be tired, hung-over, possibly having stress problems at home or possibly having medical problems might end up in the situation with another employee having some other problem or maybe some major piece of equipment breaking down. The analysis of these risks is beyond the scope of anyone to really say what the actual odds are.” – Doug Daugert

“We who … live here are asked to shoulder the risk of disastrous impacts to our livelihood and our homes, and it would take a vivid imagination to see an upside for the people of these islands in the proposal that we’ve heard so far. I’d find it a lot more palatable if the proposal was to pipe and to ship refined petroleum products like gasoline or diesel that float and evaporate if they’re spilled instead of crude oil and, furthermore, Canadians would be employed in the refining process.” – Ron Haralson

“I raised four children here and even when there wasn’t a penny in the bank, we always had food, thanks to the generosity of community members and our own work picking, digging and canning. We used to joke that the broker we were, the better we ate because that was when the treasures came out; canned fish, clams, deer meat and berries. The Enbridge Northern Gateway project puts this kind of food security and self-sufficiency for the next generation seriously at risk. This project threatens not only the last remaining temperate rain forest on earth, but many protected areas and every body of water from the tar sands to China. We as humans do not have the right to put our home in jeopardy for the sake of short-term profits for far away corporations. In the national and global interest, let’s protect our waterways and oceans. Let’s stop doing deals with dictatorships, and let’s get off this road to oblivion we are currently on and branch out into newer, greener forms of power and get some rehab for our dependency on big oil. ” – Dierdre Brennan

“On Sunday, we’re going to have the welcome back salmon ceremony. Ever since Robert Davidson introduced this ceremony to us, I find it such a sacred and important ceremony because we not only acknowledge the food that we gather from there, the sockeye, the salmon, we also acknowledge those that fish the lands and harvest the food there. We remember our ancestors that were here long before we were and all these things are what makes us Haida, what makes us Haida people. And you know, it’s so hard to think if this oil -- Enbridge comes here. You look at the news of the world, there’s all kinds of plants and big businesses setting down, and they don’t eve think of the people that are left there after they’ve gotten what they could take.” – Rev. Lily Bell

“So right now, like a lot of people who choose to live here and those that are born and raised and do sustain their community, I do not make huge amounts of money. And so with the cost of groceries, freight, and gas being so high, we supplement our family’s diet with seafood, such as salmon, halibut, clams, scallops, octopus, chitons, mussels, crabs, cockles and seaweed. My kids are strong and healthy thanks to these local foods that we can harvest. My life revolves around the harvesting, fishing, gathering and storage and preparation of these foods. My family’s sustenance would be drastically impacted when there is eventually an oil spill.” – Estrella Hepburn

“No matter how much assurance Enbridge gives us of the safety of these new tankers and all the technology they will have on board, they cannot talk about just one Captain that is so arrogant and thinks he knows it all, or one that is so compliant as to take their tanker into a storm; a deadline that needs to be met.” – Lynda Osborne

“However, this present growth, this world growth rate, is unsustainable for the earth and we know that, and all of us are demanding more resources than the earth can supply. Therefore, more and more of our human activities are becoming unsustainable. We are unleashing forces that are changing the earth and its ecosystems in ways too many of us refuse to understand. The price we pay for this rapidly expanding petroleum sands project in Alberta is very high. If we proceed with full throttles open we will pay a higher price, a price that the planners and promoters never seem to fully calculate and report.” – Tim Wolthers

“In the meantime, there has been the Exxon Valdez disaster, the sinking of a ferry …, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, to name just a few accidents. There will always be accidents where there are ships. I’m quite confident that these few people, who will profit enormously from putting the livelihood of many people and the lives of many animals at risks, are willing to try it. They don’t live here; they just make their money here. But it is enormously selfish of them.” – Susanne Suna

“So this process, the word “consulting”, it brings up a lot. So consulting always reminds me of the saying “no means no”. “No means no” is a slogan from the anti-rape movement. When one party says no, then it means that it can’t happen even if there’s one or three or four parties saying yes. So these projects only work when we can work together. They can’t happen when a large population says no unitedly, as we have on Haida Gwaii. So I’d like to thank the Panel for being such patient listeners. You’ve been listening to our answers to the question at hand, and you can see how affected we would be. And you’ve been listening to what’s important in our lives and we have spoken clearly as individuals and as a united island community. And no means no.” – Dominic Legault

“What I see here is a process where the Prime Minister has indicated that we’re terrorists. I suspect that we shall see you all in Court. That’s my statement. Thank you.” – Pat Parish

“I lived on Haida Gwaii all my life, and I work at a local cannery where we process razor clams, crab, halibut and salmon. We work seasonally, and I think if we had an oil spill, where would that leave us? We’d have nothing to process and we’d have no jobs. Where will we live when we can’t get our food? Will the company pay the people of Haida Gwaii for damages? One thing I’ll tell you is all the money in the word couldn’t help us. We love living off the land and the sea, so I pray that things stay that way.” – Emily Debra Watts

“In our household, we eat seafood on a weekly basis. That is how it is for most families on Haida Gwaii. I’m here to state on behalf of my family, our future generations and the people of Haida Gwaii no to tankers going through our territory. I’m very firm on that. An oil spill would ruin the way of life and nutrition for people here and all along the coast. In my 40 years working for the Skidegate Band Council, providing seafood for our community members and for cultural events has always been a priority. Copper River blueback, halibut, Sockeye salmon, spring salmon, cod, clams, crab, k’aaw, which is herring roe-on-kelp. Living from the ocean is who we are.” – Babs Stevens

“Haida Gwaii has been my home only for my adult life. If there was a spill along these shores, I could join my family where they live. I would not necessarily be happy there, but I would survive and my children would survive. I would have my memories of Haida Gwaii and tell stories to my children about all the adventures we had here, the amazing experiences, but the time spent on these islands and my memories would only be mine to lose. While a supertanker jeopardizes my small family and my lifestyle and the way my children are currently being raised, it does not put into question the existence of my entire culture as it does to my Haida neighbours. During the last round of JRP hearings, I was overwhelmed with the absurdity that the Canadian government has allowed this process to go this far. That my fellow community members have been put into the position of defending their culture and that this would seem to be a mere formality for a done deal, it leaves me enraged.” – Karen McMurray

“From my perspective, the way to sanity -- back to sanity -- for our civilization lies with indigenous people to sort of show us the way back to the land, for caring for the land, to re-evaluate our priorities so that we could live in a way that’s sustainable without endlessly chasing growth or always having to pay back debts in some financial system that, let’s face it, it’s all made up. It’s not -- we give it a lot of reality, but it doesn’t have the reality that fish in the sea have or clean air or clean drinking water. That’s what’s really real, and that is what sustains life.” – Dr. Ken Leslie

“So people back in Ottawa are trying to make this decision for us, no thanks. You know, tar sands, it cost more to process that stuff than what it’s worth and it’s destructive, flat out, plain out destructive. So, no, no, no, no, do not jeopardize my life, my community’s life. The one best thing about anything that could be said here is it’s going to unite the whole First Nations of B.C. and everybody else that respects the environment and tries to live a better life. You’re going to unite everybody on this.” – Marnie Yorke

“So I don’t want the Enbridge pipeline extended or for oil tankers to pass anywhere near the coast of B.C., including Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii. I want the Haida way of life and local ways of living to be protected. I want the water to remain as clean as it is or better. I want the creatures of the ocean to thrive as they are, or better, and I want the air to remain as clean as it is or better. So this situation seems to be a case of corporate interest being considered greater than human needs. A corporation is not a living being. The needs of humanity need to be considered above the needs of a business plan, a liquid, a building or pieces of paper with words or numbers written on them. It takes courage and bravery to retract steps and change a path when it’s harmful to others while one has been following this negative path for a while. So to the people of Enbridge, I challenge you to change your path.” – Suzanne Thibodeau

“If this venture goes ahead, there will be disaster on the horizon and it will only be a question of when and how much toxic material will be released. It will become a part of the environment that shapes us. Our way of life will be decimated or at least at best crippled for the future and the future will be diminished. But for what? Let those who would benefit from this project step forward and pledge to remove the crude from the sea floor, from the crabbing areas, from the beaches, the mud flats and the clam beds, from the life in and on the ocean. Enbridge won’t clean it up and neither will Stephen Harper and his marionettes in Ottawa. Who is to be held responsible? This planet is our life support and we remake it at our own great peril. The real treasure here is water not oil. Water gives life.” – John Smith

“One of my other concerns is the Canadian government expects to make a decision that benefits the whole country at the cost of the few that live on the coast and Alberta. I believe that those living along the pipeline route and the north coast should have much greater say in the proposal because we are bearing the risk when a spill occurs. I know that a small community would not simply decide to have a sewage treatment plant or a garbage dump on one person’s property in a neighbourhood because it is good for the whole community. Even kids know that that’s not fair.” – Kiku Dhanwant

“We all talk about the fish and we all talk about all the seafood that we gather, but we also do eat a lot of deer here. And you might think that this is a land creature. Our deer eat seaweed, which makes them taste better. And if you have the opportunity to have our deer here, you should. So therefore, everything is connected by land and by sea here. I am against the tankers going through our waters. I want my grandchildren and my great grandchildren to have the opportunities in their lifetime to have what I have had and what my children have had.” – Lisa Edwards

“But now we know that there’s so many horrific disadvantages to all the things that are coming from petroleum or all kinds of petroleum products: It’s non-renewable; it’s running out, just not fast enough; wars and more wars are happening because of it; CO2 polluted air; many negative health outcomes; global warming; the great Pacific garbage patch, mostly plastic; polluted water tables; destroyed coastlines; destroyed ecosystems; destroyed human economy of Louisiana, Haida Gwaii, northern coast near Alaska. It goes on and on. And right now, apparently, the west coast beaches are piling up with plastic because the tsunami brought all kinds of debris to our shores. Most of these mistakes are just the result of, you know, human carelessness. Some of them are natural disasters but human carelessness plus natural disasters can really make for a big problem.” – Louise Van Der Linden

“Then, if a spill happens, I also -- or not only me, everybody knows that it is literally impossible to contain the oil. And it would wash up all around that whole area and it would wash up the rivers and it would be everywhere. And I have brought those drift cards that were thrown in the water when the Exxon Valdez sank. They throw, as a drift study, in little wooden cards. And they are right now over there. And they drifted over -- those cards were found on East Beach. I know a fellow who has more than 200 of those picked up from East Beach. And they make their way up and they came with the oil and the tar is still sticking on there.” – Suzanne Koenig

“The last big spill in Europe was in 2003, in Spain. Given it was a single hull tanker still it happened and it was on the northwest coast of Spain in a little province called Galicia. It was devastating. There’s still hundreds of kilometres of that coastline are polluted. They cannot clean it up. They had I don’t know how many marine, navy people there, soldiers, many, many volunteers at the time. They tested 800 navy people after the cleanup, they all developed lung disease, cardiovascular problems and even chromosome disease after the cleanup and it is all linked to the cleanup and it is actually proven. On the other side too, all those people who lived there, many little fishing villages were destroyed. The suicide rate went skyrocket up. Many people just killed themselves on the beaches because they couldn’t handle it. That’s a truth too.” – Michl Koenig

“And I look at the … route there; that’s crazy. That’s out of this world to bring tankers through there. That’s not -- you know, here it’s going to affect here, but I can see other regions in the area, other indigenous peoples and cultures being affected by this. The tankers themselves, even if one doesn’t spill, which is, you know, mathematically almost impossible, they’re still dumping their bilge all over place. Tanker lanes all over this world are killing thousands of turtles, fish, seahorses; everything you can think of is dying right now as I’m speaking. Something’s out there dying because of bilge oil in the water because of these tanker lanes.” – Shaun Peacock

“I have so many stories about how my clan narrowly escaped the last smallpox epidemic. But I really want all of us Haidas and all of us nations that live here on Haida Gwaii to be -- have the benefit of being able to live here forever, that there is no end because in Haida beliefs and traditions, there is no end. When we pass on into the next world, we are reincarnated. So the old spirits in these children that are here in this room -- there are old spirits in those children, and they’ve returned to us to remind us of who we were and are. I am against this pipeline project. I’m against it because we are all part of this world. It’s not just going to affect Haida Gwaii. As the previous speakers have said, it’s going to affect everything on the coast, but really, as Susanne illustrated, it’s going to affect even further than that. We are all part of this world and it’s going to hurt all of us forever.” – Roberta Kennedy

“I am very concerned, of course, of what I’ve heard, the news that I’ve heard around the world and what’s been coming through the internet. I have something here written by Paul Josephs. He talks about Enbridge as having 80 oil spills last year and an average of 70 a year in pipeline operations. And the pipelines will cross 773 streams between Alberta and Kitimat on our coast. A spill is guaranteed to happen and will destroy some of the streams. Many are fish-bearing. Thousands of species of wildlife will face serious harm when there is a pipeline spill. Salmon, seals, whales, bears, just people are not -- not just people are affected, but all our animal and wildlife.” – Lorette Smillie

“My point being here, during my time working for Canada Coast Guard at no time did I see adequate training in spill response. I did not see the cleanup of spills or the deployment equipment when it should have been. Human error was the cause of all of these spills. It is not a matter if, it is a matter of when a spill would happen. Enbridge and Canada Coast Guard do not have the capacity to contain or deal with a spill off the shores of Haida Gwaii. Our weather and ocean is extreme here. By Transport Canada Shipping Act Standards, 2001, the response equipment can only be deployed effectively in seas less than six feet and winds less than 40 kilometres per hour. If you live here you know that -- that both -- we exceed both of these often.” – Traci Murphy

“We’re calling ourselves one country. This is time for us to be one country and one people to stand up for what is right. And we’re fighting for our land and our water and our children’s children’s future. And I’m thankful that you’ve given us a voice at least to have our say. Thanks for that.” – Vernon Williams Jr.

“Raising kids on Haida Gwaii, for me, demands a certain amount of creativity. We have no swimming pool, no recreation centre, no skating rink, no ski hill, no climbing wall, no skate park, no movie theatre. We make our own recreational activities by utilizing the nature that surrounds us. We live in harmony with the land and we are obliged to treat it with respect because it not only feeds us; it keeps us sane. Where do you go to swim, surf, skip stones, play soccer, fly a kite, walk your dog or unleash your anger and frustration over a rotten day -- the beach. I can understand that the Haida may not be open to the Gateway Project because there have been many empty promises made to First Nations over the last 150 years. That is not the kind of thing that can be easily reversed; people need to feel trust and respect. That is done by actions. That is done by unity and support.” – Joanne Zaleski

“According to the editorial in the May 17th, edition of our local paper, The Observer: ‘Here on the north end of Haida Gwaii, the average family income is just over $21,000, as compared to B.C.’s average of $68,000. The standard of living here is supplemented -- or rather survival is upheld by gifts from the land and the water.’ All of this is put in jeopardy by the tanker traffic that would result from the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. We are being asked to risk everything that makes life as a community here possible, so that the unsustainable machine of our current national economy can continue its trajectory uninterrupted.” – Natalie Affolter

“A spill will have a shocking life-changing impact on me. We won’t taste anymore spring salmon, halibut, seaweed, butter clams, razor clams, prawns, mussels, sea asparagus, herring, that is just to name a few of things we eat from the ocean. On the land, we will be without our berries, teas, medicine, venison and so much more. This product -- sorry, this project is not in my best interests, my daughters’ best interests or my grandchildren’s’ best interests. There is no way I would or could ever say this was in my family’s best interest. The risk is far too high to take any chance with our coast. Our families have lived here and thrived here despite what the newcomers have tried to do to them. We are strong people here on Haida Gwaii and we say no.” – Mary Disney

“Growing up on Haida Gwaii shaped my world view and my values. Joining the movement to stop this project has consumed me and it has defined me. I know that I have a responsibility to leave Haida Gwaii for future generations to experience and appreciate. I’m an incredibly proud aunt to the most remarkable twin boys, Asher and Cohen. I’m a daughter and a sister, a student, a realist, and an optimist. I’m employed on this island and I’m a volunteer in my community. According to the Indian Act, I’m a status Indian. I live in a globalized world and so consider myself part of an international community. And in all of these capacities, I speak out against the Northern Gateway. I’m a citizen of the Haida Nation, and my government rejects Enbridge’s proposal.” – Valine Crist

“And Enbridge has given us numerous statements saying we don’t need to worry about this pipeline -- the pipeline and the tankers. They certainly are on solid ground when they say that they have no concerns about the tankers because they’re not responsible for them. The people responsible for those tankers are the tanker owners. As we all know, many commercial vessels sail under a flag of convenience in foreign countries. Therefore, any hope of obtaining compensation or assistance with clean-ups and such would involve international courts, potentially. Personally, I don’t think we’d ever see any money in my lifetime.” – Shirley Baker

“I was very proud to be born of Haida ancestry, I was brought up to respect the land and sea and everything that the Creator provided for us. Everything from the sea we gather for our survival, clams, cockles, scallops, crab, urchin, chitons, mussels, abalone, shrimp, prawns, seaweed, and fish of every kind. What I wanted to say to the JRP is no, no, no, because our resource is at stake. Our people will die if our food is damaged. We have already lost a lot of our food we love to eat, like urchins.” – Margaret Edgars

“Transport Canada is only responsible to ensure a level of preparedness … is in place for up to 10,000 tonne spill. The Canadian Coast Guard can -- I emphasize can, not must -- supplement the response of over 10,000 tonnes. I understand the tankers are in the 320,000 tonne range. Enbridge has no involvement in the marine shipping pollution accidents that happen. I would like to quote from the TERMPOL process report on tanker traffic: ‘When the polluter is known, willing and able to respond, the Canadian Coast Guard will advise the polluter of its responsibilities.’ Well, we’ll all be able to sleep at night knowing the Canadian Coast Guard will be pointing fingers and handing out dunce caps.” – Ronald Gates

“This is a pipeline to ship bitumen from Chinese oil sands’ interests to Chinese ships. Enbridge is the Canadian contractor face put on a Chinese pipeline, nothing more. Very little of the pipeline construction jobs will go to Canadian workers. This will be built by large gangs of foreign labour in company camps, much like the camps that built the railways and more recently the oil sands installations. Endangering thousands of kilometres of streams, crossing mountain ranges that have rock and mudslides yearly, and using massive tankers designed for crude oil hauling a substance completely unlike crude oil while plying some of the roughest waters in the world is a fool’s game. There will be pipeline ruptures, there will be oil spills. Except these won’t be oil spills, they will be a super toxic blend of heavy, partially refined bitumen, mixed with solvents that will be far harder to deal with than an oil spill.” – David Thompson

“It’s worth noting that there has been no recovery of the fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico, where the deep water horizon oil platform exploded and leaked 4 million barrels of oil. It’s also worth noting that the new largest classes of supertankers are capable of carrying roughly that amount of oil. A spill in these waters and the local fisheries would never likely exist again. The ecosystem would be destroyed. Since that leak caused by the deep water horizon, the ecosystem and the fisheries of the Gulf of Mexico have been forever damaged. Severely mutated fish have washed up on beaches. The combination of spilled oil and chemical dispersants that were used in the cleanup has resulted in shrimp born without eyes, fish that were caught with lesions and oozing sores. Since that spill, crab fishermen have reported finding eyeless crabs, crabs with shell-soft instead of hard; full-grown crabs that are one-fifth the normal size, and crabs that are mutated and have no claws. Other crabs appear with shells that look as if they have been burned by chemicals. The ecosystem will likely never recover. Are we willing to risk the ecosystem and fisheries so some oil companies can increase their profits? Absolutely not.” – Ian Keir

“This proposed pipeline threatens not just the people of today, but our children, their children, and the children after them. It is entirely possible that if this pipeline is approved I will never see a tanker spill in my lifetime, but we all know that the more you gamble, the more you have to lose, and right now we are using the lifetimes of future generations as chips. I believe that these stakes are much too high and that is why I am speaking here today. I do not think this pipeline is, or ever will be, in the public’s best interest. I hope that when the time comes to make the final decision on this project you will have taken all the statements and evidence you have heard so far, and the statements and evidence you will hear now, or in the future that is, and that your decision reflects the views of the public you are representing. My final statement is a simple one and I’ll be direct with you. I do not want this pipeline built. I would much rather watch my grandchildren play in the ocean on North Beach, build forts, and eat fresh crab like I did, than have to tell them why they can’t.” – Kelsey Kricheldorf

The possibilities are what might happen as a result of contamination from a possible tanker accident, and that would be the destruction of traditional ways of life, threats to wildlife and biodiversity, and the devastation for food, recreation and commercial fisheries, and et cetera. I’ve -- you’ve heard it all this morning. This is the scenario where all of our lives are ruined. The certainties are what everyone knows to be certain outcomes of this project. One of them that’s out there from the Polaris Institute is 804 pipeline spills between 1999 and 2010. So that’s about -- and that’s releasing -- that’s not little tiny-- little spills like some people say, little droplets of oil here and there, like they like to tell us, but it’s 160,000 barrels of -- of hydrocarbons, and that’s 804 spills in 11 years, so that’s about 80 a year. And wouldn’t you quit your job if that’s what you were up to? Like, I’m a -- I’m a teacher and if I poisoned just one child a year I would quit. I would say that’s it, I’m done. Obviously I’m doing bad things here, right? So the people proposing this project consider that reasonable when they talk about risk but it’s not reasonable because they’re not risking anything. All this is happening in someone else’s home.” – Peter Reynolds

“The first of my points deals with an exercise I used with clients when I was a chartered financial planner. It was the worst case/best case scenario. If we are to consider the tankers up and running, the best case scenario would play out as, one, corporations making profits on delivered goods; two, nothing bad happening to us. However, the worst case scenario would be a spill. One, company profits would be down to pay for cleanup costs. But two, affected are migrating whales, birds, seals, otters, and all the fish harvested, crabs, oysters in the aquaculture industry, all the land-based birds and mammals that feed on sea life. The tourist industry would be reduced with no more trips to oil soaked beaches. Everything is affected. The ocean is not a bathtub that you drain and refill with every tide. The currents and winds mix the waters, spreading contaminants throughout the food chain. A southeast blow would send everything straight to Haida Gwaii.” – Anne Wells

“Of course, tankers are much bigger now than they were, especially VLCCs, with a capacity of two million barrels. Suddenly, there would be many temporary jobs in B.C. Of course, they would all be in the reclamation process. The Exxon Valdez spill sent about 258,000 barrels of crude oil into the ocean with most being lost within the first eight hours. The cleanup, which it was expected to take two months, carried on for over a year and only collected less than 5 percent of the oil that was spilt. Even though 23 years have passed, the ecological and economic impacts are widespread and ongoing. Vital shore habitats are still contaminated. The herring fishery has lost 15 seasons and herring stocks still haven’t recovered. The effects on the fisheries, wildlife, natural resource damages, and social cultural impacts in the area are estimated to range from 8.5 billion to as high as 127 billion.” – Debi Landon

“And I’ve canned deer meat, smoked fish, dried fish. I’ve made jams from the berries and there’s wild strawberries from Rose Spit that it just surpasses the strawberries you get in the store. And this area where it is, it will be greatly impacted if there’s an oil spill. I’ve picked our own teas and I’ve made medicines. And this is the busiest time, the busiest season that you’ve come here. Lots of our people are out seaweed picking. They’re up at the rivers.” – Daphne White

“The problem arises, in my view, when the oil -- or bitumen, in this case -- hits the ocean. Enbridge is a transportation company, and so is not legally responsible for a spill in the case of a marine accident. That only makes the outlook worse for anyone who values our coast and the myriad economic and social goods it provides British Columbians in particular. It has been said at previous hearings, but it bears repeating, the benefits of this project do not come close to outweighing the costs. I say costs because a spill is inevitable and can be considered a cost not yet realized. Paul Stanley, the spokesperson for Enbridge, says that the chances of a spill are extremely remote. He has not said that a spill will not happen, and we would be foolish to believe it if he did.” – Sophie Harrison

“The reason that I focus on legacy is that I ask you to turn your gaze to Canada and look at the legacies left by government decision-making in action. There’s the legacy of residential schools, which has resulted in the loss of language, and so many other negative consequences that we as indigenous people have dealt with and will deal with for generations to come. There’s the legacy of the Atlantic fishery. There’s the legacy of asbestos mining. There’s the legacy of fish farming and the slow destruction of many species resulting from that. There’s the legacy of leaving the Kyoto Protocol. There’s the legacy of Harper’s Conservatives and the destruction of the fragile façade of a democratic Canada. There’s the legacy of the tar sand development. There’s no sense of pride attached to any of these tragic legacies. I compare the two experiences of the Haida Nation and the nation of Canada. I tell you that, regardless of our perceived poverty, we are in an incredibly advantageous position with our sense of cultural pride and accomplishments for the legacy we are leaving for our future generations. Canada has the opportunity now to be a part of this legacy, of saying no to the Enbridge pipeline and not allowing it to happen. You have that opportunity.” – Amanda Bedard

“My name is Mya Edenshaw. I’m 10 years old. I am in Grade 5. I have -- I am from the Ts’aahl clan. I love to live here because I can swim in the ocean and play on the beach. My favourite food is seafood. My dad and Tsaanii Cooper and my Tsaanii Reilly go out and get it. Sometimes they take me out to go fishing, too. If there was an oil spill, I couldn’t swim in the ocean, I couldn’t eat the seafood. I would have to eat the yucky food from the store. Haaw’a.” – Mya Edenshaw

“I grew up eating Haida food. I went out for seaweed all my life. I like to dig butter clams. I am learning to dig razor clams. Our school -- every two years, our school goes through rediscovery and we do a whole bunch of things that involve the ocean. And we would not be able to do the things we do there if there’s an oil spill.” – Hanna Edenshaw (8)

“It is my responsibility to look after my family, my daughter, my niece, all my nieces. And you know, we cannot let this happen. This will not happen. As a Haida, it is my responsibility to look after this land. And as Haida people, we will not let this happen. This is Haida land and this will not go through. You know, we don’t want conflict here. We hope that it doesn’t come to that. But we have no choice. This cannot happen in our homeland, you know. And I don’t see how Canada could say that this is in the national interest to pit region against region and create this kind of conflict.” – Jaalen Edenshaw

“Our territory is in Rose Spit area and is most widely used and always the most sensitive area along the coast. The area is a migrating highway for a large number of birds as well as many different sea creatures, plus the surrounding waters are nursery ground for many living sea life. By that, I put it by -- in August and September, the grey whales migrate along the coast and feed on sand krill -- sand shrimps. And they could go right up to the beach up to 20 feet away, which I’ve witnessed quite a few times because I like to be in that area watching lots of different mammals and animals that migrate through there. So if you were to have an oil spill here, you would have many extinct -- extinct sea life to add to the already growing list of extinct animals. There’s no modern way that can bring back what would be lost from an oil spill. I always thought it would be a large bomb that would kill off mankind, but now I know that it will be greed.” – Elvis Davis

“And I just spent the last month down on Moresby Island at Mosquito Lake, at Mount Moresby Camp. And we run a program there, the Forest Stewardship Program, teaching children from the islands here about what stewardship means. And really, what stewardship means is looking out, you know, taking care of the forest and taking care of the land. And these are grade fives, and they grasp that concept. They understand that they need to take care of the lands and the ocean around them. And we’re all adults and many of us don’t understand that. And that just doesn’t make much sense.” – Taze Kowal

“People here live off the land and the oceans and it’s their right. That right cannot be taken away. The government does not have the right to take away our chance to live healthy and on the land where we belong. We’ve already suffered enough and we’re taking a stand against the destruction of our environment, our health depends on our food, culture, land and oceans. Our waters have already been overfished and our forests have been clear-cut. The food is going, the jobs are suffering. It’s time for us to make a stand for ourselves and not let this continue and this is one way we can do it. An oil spill would devastate our islands and likely make Haida Gwaii unliveable because we depend on our forests and our oceans for food, shelter and culture. This would be devastating. A spill would destroy the Haida people and our home and nobody has the right to put is in that position. We’re taking -- asked to take all the risks and not receive any benefit.” – Michelle Condrotte Brown

“I was raised here on Haida Gwaii where I learned everything from walking and talking to speaking Haida clearly and fishing, with everything in between. I want to speak up to Enbridge because I want to speak for my land, my culture, my identity, my community, and my family. I also want to speak here today because Haida Gwaii is my life and a spill could ruin most of the Haida culture, and all of what it could open.” – Caylene Bell (12)

“So everyone, go out there and speak about this and be very aware and active and critically minded on this, and we’ll stand up. And we’ll stand up for the ones, the creatures and the land that cannot speak for itself and the people who weren’t here because they didn’t sign up and get through the process properly. All my students, all those kids out there that were determined to get to speak in the last week or two that are not able to speak because of the process.” – David McLean

“You know, I just like to say I’m totally against Enbridge. I speak for my children. Just give me eyes to see what is highly valued on Haida Gwaii. What is highly valued for me is the gift God gave us. He gave us plenty, he gave us seafood. Reverend Davidson says, ‘When the tide is out, the table is spread’. And I pray that we would be naanii’s, tsinii’s, aunties, kaagiis, whatever, that’s everyday of our lives. Naanii, my naan died in her nineties and I pray that I would die at a late age to see my children’s children make ts’iilts, that they’d be able to eat eulachon grease, not black oil.” – Marina Jones

“As a Cree proverb warns us, only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize we cannot eat money. This project is not in the interest of any citizen in Canada or abroad. The current tar sand development is polluting Athabasca watershed and the proposed project will cross over 1,000 streams and rivers and then set sail across the Pacific Ocean. For real? Who is willing to risk this? Who? We need to protect the resources we cannot live without; soil, air and water. We are all on this globe, everything, everyone, all interconnected. I oppose this project as a member of my community, as a British Columbian, as a Canadian citizen and as a species of this earth. I say “no”. In the vested interest of humankind, I ask you, please, do not allow this project to go through.” – Michelle Hagenson

“Why would anyone choose to work with a pipeline company with such a lousy track record of pipeline spills? That’s not sensible. It’s not sensible to create a protected place like Gwaii Haanas with one hand and threaten to destroy it with the other. It’s not sensible for government to ignore the in-your-face climate instability that threatens us. And not only ignore but gut policies, research and scientific bodies that help us to make informed decisions. With respect comes responsibility and many of us feel a responsibility, not only to family generations but to the world, to keep our part of the earth healthy.” – Jane Nelson

“And where will we go when we lose all our medicine and our food and our sustenance? Who will we be? It’s genocide; it will be complete genocide.” – Crystal Robinson

“As an educator, I see hungry kids every day. To take their main food source away from them would be disastrous. The families of my students’ average income is $21,500. The cost of four litres of milk on the island here is $7. I’m not making this up, and I find it unconscionable that even considering making a poverty-stricken region at further risk is something that the government is even permitting.” – Zoe Sikora

“Any experienced Captain, of which there are some probably in this room today, will verify that trying to manoeuvre a monster ship in these waters for the entire year is a suicide mission to the crew, the ship and, in this case, the health and welfare of the residents of Haida Gwaii and those inhabiting the thousands of kilometres of the coastline from Alaska to California. An error will ruin the livelihoods of these waters. With an oil spill, my little surf shop will be gone. All I’ve worked for, gone. The fisheries, gone. The tourism, gone. The impact will be for generations. The clams will be ingesting these toxins for decades and a major food source, gone. One more time, gone.” – Michael McQuade

“I also wonder how the sale of our resources to China will impact on our prices for oil products as we move forward. And I think -- I question why fuelling the Chinese economy is a good idea, supporting a country with a poor human rights track record, a country with known pollution problems that are growing, and also a manufacturer of inexpensive poorly made goods that wind up in landfills. And with that type of product, it’s always cheaper to buy something new than to repair it and I don’t think it’s a good responsible attitude for the future.” – Jack Litrell

“Let’s move to my second example concerning the treacherous nature of the waters of Hecate Strait and the possibility of human error and catastrophic results. I submit an article from last week’s Island Observer. The headline was titled ‘Report Reveals New Details About Horrific Hecate Strait Sailing’. And I quote from the Observer: ‘The Northern Adventure should never have attempted to cross Hecate Strait the night of November 22nd, 2009, because predicted weather conditions were worse than allowed by both the fleet regulation and the vessel-specific manual.’ This is according to documents released by B.C. Ferries in response to a freedom of information request by the Observer. The seven-page investigation report pointed out several areas where safety measures had not been implemented on the November 22nd sailing and made 12 recommendations to avoid similar incidents in the future. I would note that our local paper had to resort to a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain this report that the authorities did not want disseminated to the public. The horrific ferry crossing of November 22nd, 2009, was another example of the intensity and the fierceness of the elements of nature in these waters and the possibility of human error. How many oil tankers will undergo similar conditions with possible human error contributing to oil spills and environmental damage? And for an example of blatant human error, we all remember the sinking of the Queen of the North.” – Jennifer White

The presence of any oil tankers in this region, I believe, would be a threat to both the seafood industry, which I’ve worked in, and the tourism industry. The wild salmon from the Skeena River have been an important part of my diet over the years and I fear that an earthquake or a landslide could rupture this pipeline, destroying this vibrant ecosystem. The debris from the tragic tsunami in Japan last year that is currently arriving on our shores raises two important concerns for me. One, the north Pacific current flows towards our shores, not away, so any oil spill would be pushed towards us, not out to sea. Number two, living in a seismically active zone like the west coast, a similar tsunami combined with the very shallow waters of the Hecate Strait, I fear, could overwhelm the largest oil tankers regardless of tugboats. With the number of tankers being proposed, the likelihood of one being in Hecate Strait or Dixon Entrance when a tsunami hit would be high. We can control pipelines and tankers. We cannot control earthquakes and tsunamis.” – Aaron Riis

“Before coming to Haida Gwaii, I worked with Greenpeace International for 13 years. In 2002, as crew on board the “Rainbow Warrior”, we were called to respond to the sinking of the oil tanker MV Prestige off the coast of Spain. After suffering damage in a storm, the ship split in half and lost around 20 million gallons of oil, which washed up all along the coastline of Spain and Portugal. I’ve travelled on the Amazon River from Belém to Manaus campaigning and blockading to put pressure on multi-nationals pillaging the rainforest. I spent weeks in the winter living in a little pod on the ice in the Beaufort Sea during the construction of one of British Petroleum’s undersea pipelines hoping to illustrate to the world the impossibility of any clean-up should the pipeline rupture under seven feet of ice. I’ve blockaded a U.S. ship in Japan secretly carrying PCBs for disposal and a ship carrying newsprint made of pulp from old growth trees from our coastal rainforest. I’ve blockaded roads leading into pristine watershed slated for clear-cut logging. I’ve knocked on doors and marched in cities and signed petitions and written to my MPs. I have been tear-gassed by riot police in two countries and arrested for environmental activism seven times in four countries, and I’ve witnessed the effects of industrial mayhem on five continents. And I have lived and fought for years with grief from the feeling of helplessness and hopelessness trying to stem the drive of industry. And I got really tired of fighting after 13 years. So I settled down and found a home, but now this danger is threatening my home and I won’t sit this one out. I will fight. My son, Fisher, is here today because I want him to know that I tried. When he helps me raise wind turbines and hook up solar panels for our neighbours, he’ll know that we tried. And when he watches me get dragged off to jail for protesting the Northern Gateway Pipeline Project, he’ll remember that I tried. And if that day does come when we have to put on hazmat suits to try and clean up the beaches, we will at least be able to say, ‘We tried’.” – Merdith Adams