"Line in the Sand" is a podcast of the Wilderness Committee based in Vancouver, BC. We bring you stories from the frontlines in the fight against Kinder Morgan's tar sands pipeline.

Line in the Sand

Wood Thrush

Phoebe and the old-growth forest

Minegoziibe Anishinabe (formerly Pine Creek First Nation) has had enough of logging mismanagement and clearcutting in their territory, and have legally challenged the Manitoba government and Louisiana-Pacific's infringement on their constitutional rights. 
Here's Chief Derek Nepinak and our own Eric Reder on the subject from CJOB68.

Minegoziibe Anishinabe challenges Louisiana Pacific's logging extension- Jan 2022

Eric Reder - Duck Mountain Interview

Duck Mountain Interview with Members of Pine Creek First Nations

Eric joins CJOB Hosts Richard Cloutier and Julie Buckingham to talk about the new Manitoba Parks Reservation System and the need for more protected areas in Manitoba.

Aired April 3, 2023 at 3:05pm

Eric Reder Interview

Eric Reder on the Richard Cloutier and Julie Buckingham show on CJOB radio. In this interview Eric talks about the Duck Mountain Audit report release, why logging in parks should be stopped, and how we need to preserve biodiversity and work towards justice with Indigenous peoples.

Eric Reider Interview - May 3 2023

Line In The Sands Intro

Today, we’re talking to three activists who were out on the water this weekend training to stop Kinder Morgan's pipeline.

Making Waves

Today, we’re talking to Kanahus Manuel, with a group of Secwepemc women building tiny homes to stand in the way.

Tiny Houses, Big Fight

Resistance takes a fire in your belly, but it won't last for long without food there too. Today we visit a workshop in Vancouver teaching people how to cook for a protest camp.

Food For The Frontlines

We talk to a few people behind the legal challenges against the Kinder Morgan pipeline about what's at stake.

See You In Court

Today, we attend a “die-in” at ground zero for the health and safety risks the project brings.

Disaster Waiting To Happen

Today, we talk with one of the kayaktivists who stopped Kinder Morgan's construction on its marine terminal in Burrard Inlet for an afternoon.

Shot Across the Bow

Today we meet a farm family in Valemount who would have 890,000 barrels of oil pumped through their backyard every day.

Not In My Backyard

Climate Campaigner Peter McCartney is on the ground at the Kwekwecnewtxw, which translates to "a place to watch from." A Watch House is a traditional structure of the Coast Salish people that has been used for tens of thousands of years to watch for enemies on their territories. Peter talks to Will George, a member of Tsleil-Waututh Nation, about the protests taking place at the Kinder Morgan Westridge Marine Terminal.

Kwekwecnewtxw

Today, we talk to activists from near and far about a valiant action to prevent an oil tanker from leaving port.

Bridge Over Troubled Water

Wilderness Committee calls for full ban of bear bait sales in British Columbia

Daybreak North

Charlotte Dawe of the Wilderness Committee speaks to Carolina de Ryk.

November 8, 2018

Wilderness Committee calls for full ban of bear bait sales in British Columbia

Co-Executive Director Joe Foy talks about the endangered spotted owl and old-growth logging in British Columbia with Chris Cook of Gorilla Radio.

Gorilla Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media.

Spotted owls and old-growth logging

It’s been over five years since Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley mine tailings dam failed, sending millions of cubic metres of water, slurry, sludge and tailings thundering down Hazeltine Creek and into Quesnel Lake.

Along with the anniversary was the five-year deadline for federal Fisheries Act charges that expired Sunday, while the possibility of other charges under the same act remains with no timeline for a decision. British Columbia missed the three-year deadline to proceed with charges under both the province's Environmental Management Act and Mines Act.

Mount Polley mine disaster 5 years later

It's back! With Trans Mountain gearing up for construction again, we're launching season two of our Line in the Sand podcast. This week, we’re talking to the environmental monitors who’ve been keeping a watchful eye on the company’s work at the tank farm on Burnaby Mountain. Join us over the coming weeks and months for more stories from the frontlines of the fight against the Trans Mountain pipeline.

Keeping Watch

S2: Keeping Watch

The British Columbia government has stopped all logging in a Canadian part of the Skagit Valley, which is part of a major salmon producing stream for Puget Sound. The area is known as the “Donut Hole,” or Silverdaisy, and was an unprotected area of land between Manning and Skagit Valley Provincial parks, which are on the Canadian-U.S. border.

In making the announcement, the B.C. government suspended all licenses to harvest timber in the 14,332-acre area.

Doug Donaldson, British Columbia’s forests minister, says the government will transfer logging rights to another area of the province.

"While we are committed to conserving the environment for future generations, we also need to protect forestry jobs as well,” Donaldson said. “To do this, we've been working with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy to secure access to new harvest areas.”

A stream near the area feeds into the Skagit River, which is a major source of salmon for Puget Sound. The area also is home to endangered wildlife, such as grizzly bears and spotted owls.  

The announcement does not cover mining interests in the area.  Possible sale or transfer of those rights are being negotiated with relevant mining companies.

Skagit Valley Provincial Park itself was created when Seattle City Light canceled construction of the High Ross Dam in 1984. In return, British Columbia agreed to sell power to Seattle, to compensate for what the hydroelectric dam would have generated.

In a statement, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan applauded the announcement, saying she will continue to advocate for total protection of the area from any future mining exploration.

One of the companies that own mining rights in the area is Imperial Metals. In 2014, a dam holding back mine tailings ruptured near Mount Polley, sending more than 6 billion gallons of mining waste materials into Quesnel Lake.

Donut Hole 

British Columbia government stops logging in Canadian portion of Skagit Valley

Under cover of the COVID-19 pandemic Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister’s government is ramming through harmful legislation with no opportunity for public discussion or explanation of the impacts on the province’s forests and parks.  

While convening an emergency legislative session to pass COVID-19 response measures, the government is also moving forward with all bills that were introduced as the world was shutting down on March 19. That’s more than 600 pages of legislation across 25 new bills.

Eric Reder - Wilderness Committee On Emergency Legislation Session

Climate Change Campaigner Peter McCartney debates Member of Parliament Elizabeth May's statement that "oil is dead" with Vivian Krause on the Mike Smyth Show.

The Mike Smyth Show

"Oil is dead"

Climate Campaigner Peter McCartney talks with Mike Smith and Adam Pankratz, UBC business professor about Canada's Supreme Court dismissed an appeal on Thursday from British Columbia's First Nations against the Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion. The decision removes a potentially major obstacle to the pipelines completion that would nearly triple the flow of oil from Alberta to the Pacific coast.

The top court posted the decision on its website without further detail, rejecting the appeal from the Squamish Nation, Tsleil-Waututh Nation, the Ts’elxweyeqw Tribe and Coldwater Indian Band, effectively ending the years-long legal battle over the project.

Some First Nations successfully halted federal approval of the project in 2018 when the Federal Court of Appeal said Ottawa had failed to properly consult affected First Nations, which argued that the project would damage their lands and waters.

But the same court in February dismissed challenges to the Canadian government's second approval of the project, which has faced years of delays.

They were based on concerns from British Columbia Indigenous groups that Ottawa had not meaningfully consulted them.

The Indigenous communities have raised environmental concerns, such as the risks of oil spills.

Peter on Canada Supreme Court dismisses Trans Mountain pipeline appeal

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Milton MPP Parm Gill strongly oppose the proposed Campbellville Quarry

Wilderness and Water Campaigner Eric Reder went on 680 CJOB with Kathy Kennedy to talk about brutal cuts to the Conservation and Climate Department in the Manitoba government. Staff are struggling to meet their job requirements with almost half of the staff team cut.

Conservation department cuts Manitoba

Eric Reder on CJOB- Oct 29 2020- Parks  Privatization

Wild Executive Director Tom Uniak on CKNW's Simi Sara Show this morning re the growing cross-border opposition to Imperial Metals' application for a mineral exploration permit in Skagit Headwaters Donut Hole. Mornings with Simi, Global News.

Environmental groups calling on BC government to shut down mining project in Skagit Headwaters

US President-elect Joe Biden is to cancel the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline on his first day in office, North American media report.

The pipeline is projected to carry oil nearly 1,200 miles (1,900km) from the Canadian province of Alberta down to Nebraska, to join an existing pipeline.

Environmentalists and First Nations have fought the project for more than a decade.

Mike Smyth talks to Climate Campaigner Peter McCartney about the move by Biden.

WildernessCommittee

Pinned to spotlight

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