[BCFSN] Fires Spark Call to Shutdown Kinder Morgan Pipeline

[Dawn Morrison]

Call to action to all friends and allies to Indigenous peoples. Share this
far and wide and push your givwrnmenrs to honour rights to conserve our
Biocultural Heritage in the land snd food system.

This is a critical state of emergency!


CHASE, B.C. - Secwepemc elders, youth, children and families are calling
for an immediate shutdown of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline in
light of the forest fires raging through their territory. They fear the
pipeline poses a serious safety hazard.

They also say the unprecedented increase in fires is evidence of global
warming created, in part, by Alberta tar sands oil transported by Kinder
Morgan.

"We are in a critical state of emergency dealing with the impacts of
climate change,” said Secwepemc teacher Dawn Morrison, adding “this
includes catastrophic flooding and fires, as well as social issues such as
poverty, increased violence against our women and high rates of death from
substance abuse in our communities.”

Morrison, founder of the Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty, says
“the health of our families and communities relies heavily on our ability
to harvest wild salmon and access clean drinking water, both of which are
at risk if the Kinder Morgan pipeline was ruptured or impacted by the
fires.”

The Secwepemc’ulecw Assembly is demanding a moratorium on any pipeline
proposing to transport crude or diluted bitumen through their vast
traditional territory where they are stewards of the forests, fields and
waterways that flow from the Rockies on their way to the ocean.

The Assembly met last month to reaffirm its territorial title and authority
saying, “We have never provided and will never provide our collective free,
prior and informed consent - the minimal international standard - to the
Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline Project.

“We explicitly and irrevocably refuse its passage through our territory.
Investors take note, there is no Secwepemc consent for Kinder Morgan.
Kinder Morgan will not pass through Secwepemc Territory.”

To view the Secwepemcul'ecw Assembly Declaration visit: secwepemculecw.org

For interviews contact: Jeffrey McNeil – 416.720.4358 Kanahus Manuel –
250.852.9002 or 323.804.5106
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/newsrelease/36568
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