Enbridge Shut Out Again

Ottawa, Alberta and the rest of Canada want to ram Enbridge down British Columbia's throat as operator of the environmental calamity they call the Northern Gateway pipeline but the Americans aren't so indifferent.

Following Enbridge's latest pipeline failure, in Wisconsin, the U.S. transportation secretary has ruled Enbridge won't be allowed to restart the pipeline until it can prove it's safe.   In other words, what Enbridge says about the safety of that pipeline means diddly squat.

"Accidents like the one in Wisconsin are absolutely unacceptable," U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement Tuesday.

"I will soon meet with Enbridge's leadership team and they will need to demonstrate why they should be allowed to continue to operate this Wisconsin pipeline without either a significant overhaul or a complete replacement."

This is, of course, the same outfit that the Alberta government, the federal government, and just about all the provincial governments other than British Columbia's argue should be allowed, without objection, to run a potentially catastrophic bitumen pipeline across remote and seisimically active British Columbia wilderness and out to Asia via supertanker traffic through insanely treacherous coastal waters.

Really.  Are you f--king serious?  This is precisely where the rubber meets the road.  This is where this nonsense ends.  Alberta is one thing but the way we see the rest of Canada and our bond to confederation will be directly impacted by the response of the other provinces.  If you allow us to be trampelled underfoot by the petro-pols in Alberta and Parliament Hill, our response will be utterly predictable.  Your choice.

Is Harper Giving British Columbia Real Cause to Secede?

Some weeks ago Conservative senator Mike Duffy dismissed opponents of the Northern Gateway bitumen pipeline as "anti-Canadian."   The more  I think about it, he may just have a point.

Does the prime monster's insistence on grievously imperilling the British Columbia coastline and fisheries with dangerous supertanker traffic not give British Columbia cause to secede from Canada?  It was, after all, only our entry into Confederation that vested in Ottawa many of the powers it now holds over our coast.   Surely it was implicit in the yielding of those powers to Ottawa that they would not be exercised to the detriment of the province and people of British Columbia.   Surely Ottawa's paramount duty to the province and people of British Columbia is to safeguard our coastal waters, not to expose them to catastrophic risks.

If Ottawa breaches its fundamental duties of care owed the province and people of British Columbia in respect of our coast, our coastal waters and our marine habitat and fisheries on what basis should we consider ourselves bound to remain within Confederation?   The deal is breached, repudiated, torn up and trampled underfoot by Ottawa itself.

This is all hypothetical now but it may not be for long.   That all may change when Harper begins tossing otherwise law-abiding British Columbians by the hundreds, perhaps even thousands, into his jails for civil disobedience.   Each of those victims of Harper's rampage will have family and friends and colleagues, many of whom will not stand for a crackdown.   What happens when they join ranks?

And bear in mind when this dissent does erupt there won't be a rightwing government in Victoria either.  No, the next British Columbia government is already on record as firmly, in fact unanimously, opposed to this supertanker madness.