Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs has warned of a court fight and possibly blockades to stop the proposed Northern Gateway oil pipeline.
Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. plans to build the $6 billion pipeline from the Alberta oil sands to the B.C. north coast.
“In the event the joint review panel either supports or rejects the Northern Gateway project proposal, and Prime Minister Harper simply sweeps that aside and endorses it, clearly from that point we’re headed to the courtrooms and that will be a long, protracted legal fight,” Phillips said.
“And in the event, miraculously, we move beyond that point, we’ll move on the land itself to defend the environmental integrity of our territories. It’s just not going to happen.”
Roughly 100 B.C. First Nations have signed the Save the Fraser Declaration. Signatories to the document state they will not permit the Northern Gateway pipeline “or similar Tar Sands projects” to cross their territories, most of which was never ceded through treaties.
