The federal government’s $4.5 billion Kinder Morgan bailout is "a shameful act" when the federal government is not investing $3.2 billion needed to provide clean drinking water for First Nations, Chief Bob Chamberlin said in an impassioned address to a large gathering of protesters in Vancouver Tuesday.
Indian Chiefs, condemning the Trudeau government’s decision to spend $4.5 billion in taxpayer funds on Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline and its troubled expansion project.
For me, the shameful act is that the government of Canada tells First Nations across the country that it doesn’t have $3.2 billion for safe drinking water on reserves.” Thousands rally to protest pipeline buyout Carrying banners and signs, more than 1,000 people gathered at a park overlooking the ocean in downtown Vancouver to protest after Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s announcement in Ottawa.
Among the event’s speakers were elected Indigenous leaders, youth, activists and organizers, and two candidates vying to become Vancouver’s next mayor.
"We have a sacred obligation — not just Indigenous people — to care for what was given to us by our ancestors, for our next generation….This is the responsibility of every single one of you living on our territory,” he told the audience, to cheers and drumming.
Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh refused to condemn peaceful, civil disobedience against the pipeline, saying dissent is part of democracy.
“We’ve got coastal communities that are concerned and are feeling frustrated and let down.
I’m going to use my platform to talk about those issues.” ‘Kinder Morgan put their tail between their legs’ In Vancouver on Tuesday, Kennedy Stewart, who will end his term as a federal member of Parliament for Burnaby South in June, to run for the mayor’s office in Vancouver, gave a fiery speech against the federal government’s decision.
Stewart, a longtime critic of Kinder Morgan, was arrested in March alongside Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May while protesting the pipeline expansion.
ET on May 30, 2018 to include comments from Singh.

A new exhibit that explores themes of healing through art is opening Saturday at Mondo Creation in Penticton.
Janette Damsma, of Blue Dragon Medicine, has been putting on exhibits of her art for 20 years, in Vancouver and on the Sunshine Coast at first, and in Penticton for a decade.
"All of the paintings are about a metaphysical or a spiritual experience that I’ve had in my life, so they’re all stories about healing in my life," Damsma said.
The exhibit is called Alchemize, which Damsma said evokes the transformational possibilities of art.
"I hope people will feel moved and inspired by the art, a lot of times because the art is about a process, people who have been through a similar thing will recognize something in the paintings that reminds them of something they’ve been through," she said.
The exhibit runs throughout the month of May, and on May 17, Damsma will be adding an additional event, performing a deeply personal musical monologue.
"I wrote it while I was going through a traumatic period in my life," she said.
"All these songs came through me, and I realized it was the story of all that I’d been through and how I came out in a positive way at the end of it."
Tickets for the performance are $25, and are available on the Blue Dragon Medicine website and at Mondo Creation.
The exhibit is free to visit at Mondo Creation, and Damsma’s work is available for purchase.

2nd annual chocolate bar fundraiser makes clean drinking water possible for thousands in rural cocoa-growing communities nd annual Clean Water Project.
The Clean Water Project, in partnership with the Cocoa Horizons Foundation, funds the purchase of LifeStraw Community water filters and associated hygiene and educational programs for rural communities with limited or no access to clean drinking water.
Retailing at $6 each, the 85 g milk chocolate and salted butter toffee bar is available across Canada and online starting March 26, 2018.
$2 from every bar purchased helps make safe drinking water a reality for thousands of people (especially children) in cocoa communities throughout Ivory Coast.
Purdys first launched the Clean Water Project in 2017 with the goal of raising enough funds to purchase 35 filters.
Purdys uses only 100% sustainable cocoa.
By making chocolates using only 100% sustainable cocoa, Purdys directly supports education programs, infrastructure projects, community development initiatives, access to health care for rural communities and many more such initiatives through their partnership with the Cocoa Horizons Foundation.
Clean Water Project Bar: Information & Availability About Purdys Chocolatier (purdys.com): Purdys Chocolatier was founded in 1907 in Vancouver by Richard Carmon Purdy.
Every creation at Purdys uses 100% sustainable cocoa, ensuring their cocoa farmer partners and co-ops are supported by programs that improve their profits and the livelihoods of their families and communities.
The Cocoa Horizons mission is to improve the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and their communities through the promotion of sustainable, entrepreneurial farming, improved productivity and community development.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has officially removed two Vancouver water stations from a federal list of hazardous waste sites in need of cleanup.
4 Superfund sites were deleted from the National Priorities List after it was determined that no further purification work was necessary.
Although the city’s drinking water meets all federal standards, the city of Vancouver will leave the cleanup equipment in place to continue to reap their benefits.
After the discovery, the city immediately modified pumping rates to protect public health, then, in 1992 and 1993, added several air-stripping towers to remove the chemical from the drinking water supply.
Tetrachloroethylene is a synthetic chemical widely used as a metal degreaser and dry cleaning agent, and is also believed to increase the risks of cancer, harm the nervous and reproductive systems as well damage the liver and kidneys.
In 1992, the EPA set a maximum contaminant level for the chemical, a legal drinking water standard, at 5 parts per billion.
The two sites were then added to the National Priorities List in 1992 and 1994 and the city continued to clean up and monitor the contamination.
The air-stripping treatment towers removed the PCE from the drinking water while also removing it from the untreated groundwater.
“We continue to treat it to what they’d call non-detectable standards in the drinking water, and the untreated groundwater is below the (drinking water maximum contamination level) of 5 parts per billion,” said Tyler Clary, water engineering program manager for the city of Vancouver Public Works.
The city initiated talks with the EPA to have the two sites removed from the National Priorities List.

Vancouver utility will soon get thermal energy from wastewater.
The False Creek SHARC was announced in August 2016 following the successful collaboration between IWS and Metro Vancouver ("Metro Vancouver").
Metro Vancouver is a partnership of 21 municipalities, one Electoral Area and one Treaty First Nation that collaboratively plans for and delivers regional-scale services across the lower mainland of British Columbia.
The False Creek Neighborhood Energy Utility is a large-scale district heating network that began operations in 2010 and currently provides space heating and hot water for 4,300,000 square feet (395,000 m2) of residential, commercial, and institutional space.
IWS installed its newest and largest capacity system at False Creek, the model 880 ("SHARC 880").
The SHARC 880 offers the highest capacity of any SHARC system to date, with flow rates of up to 1500 gallons per minute, a capacity increase of three-times when compared to existing SHARC models.
The False Creek SHARC installation will include two SHARC 880 systems working in tandem and will initially operate over 12-month period to demonstrate the economic and energy efficiencies of the system.
This is the second time that a SHARC system has been integrated into a district heating network following IWS’s installation at Borders College (Scotland) in 2015.
IWS systems recycle thermal energy from wastewater, generating the most energy efficient and economical systems for heating, cooling & hot water for commercial, residential and industrial buildings.
IWS is publicly traded in Canada (CSE:IWS), the United States (OTC PINK:INTWF) and Germany (FRANKFURT:IWI).