Pipeline
Continued From Page 4
he’s clearly made it difficult for the
board to present itself as a convin-
cing and impartial reviewer of the
project in front of them.”
In light of Prime Minister Ste-
phen Harper’s “reputation with
his ministers that they dance to
his tune,” Bankes also assumes
Oliver’s letter was written by
“press officials” within the PMO,
not by officials in the Natural
Resources Department.
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cial and quasi-judicial contexts.
It’s really what they’re saying,
the content of their arguments
and how reasonable are their
representations.”
Green Party Leader Elizabeth
May, a lawyer, said the govern-
ment is “undermining” the regu-
latory process by “demonizing”
opposition to the pipeline when,
in fact, polls show that most Brit-
ish Columbians are against the
1,177-kilometre twin pipeline that
Enbridge Inc. wants to build
from northern Alberta to the
northwest B.C. coastal commun-
ity of Kitimat, where the bitumen
would be loaded onto supertank-
ers for export to Asia and the
United States.
“British Columbians do not
want the 1972 federal-provincial
moratorium on oil-tanker traffic
to be lifted, and the Northern
Gateway project is predicated on
the idea that there is no moratorium,” said May, the sole Green
MP in the House of Commons,
who represents the B.C. riding of
Saanich-Gulf Islands.
She also believes Oliver’s
open letter is “part of a very co-
ordinated, cynical and sophisti-
cated communication strategy
developed by the Prime Minis-
ter’s Office to gain public sup-
port for what they want to do
and compromise the legitimate
legal process of review.”
May, who practised public
interest law and environmental
law in Halifax and Ottawa in the
1980s, said the Canadian Bar
Association and individual lawyers
should “step up and explain” to the
public the role of government in
the regulatory process.
“It should not be to prejudice
the result and attack the process
itself,” she explained. “You’d expect
this from [Venezuelan President]
Hugo Chávez, but it’s not some-
thing you’d expect from a Can-
adian government.”
May added that the federal
government has a duty to ensure
the proposed pipeline does not
infringe upon the title rights and
activities of First Nations people.
She said the president of the
Haida Nation Council in B.C. has
accused Enbridge of misleading
the NEB joint review panel by
suggesting the company has a
relationship with Haida groups,
which oppose the project.
“The federal government has
a responsibility to protect First
Nations’ interests and Enbridge
is treating the consultation
with the Haida as though it can
be fictitious.”
More than 4,300 groups and
individuals have signed up to
appear at the NEB hearings on the
Northern Gateway pipeline. A
decision by the three-person joint
review panel, which includes
energy lawyer Kenneth Bateman,
is expected next year. n
