Note to readers: please click the share buttons above  

Today, Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal ruled that the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline’s Cabinet approval was fatally flawed in not one but two ways: in failing to properly consult Indigenous peoples and First Nations, and in failing to properly account for the full environmental impacts of the project by excluding the Trans Mountain Expansion’s associated tanker traffic.

In response, Senior Campaigner Adam Scott of Oil Change International released the following statement:

“Today’s court decision is a major victory for Indigenous rights, coastal protection, and the fight to stop our worsening climate crisis. The courts have upheld Canada’s laws in the face of a government unwilling to do the right thing.

“The Trudeau government abandoned its promise of reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous Peoples when it forced this dangerous project on numerous individual, rights-holding First Nations in 2016. Respecting Indigenous rights requires ensuring free, prior, and informed consent, not continuing Canada’s colonial legacy of privileging extractive industry.

“De facto halting this dangerous project keeps open the only credible path for Canada to live up to its obligation to fight climate change. Building new, long-lived pipelines in support of ever-growing oil production and export is wholly incompatible with the rapid transition away from fossil fuels required.

“The Trudeau government’s disastrous decision to bail out this project using taxpayer money now looks even more foolish than it did in May.

“This project will never be built. A growing and courageous movement for a better future will never let that happen.”

*

Featured image is from The Tyee.