Good morning,
It was just a taste of the protests and civil disobedience that will follow every step of the construction of the Trans Mountain expansion project. And now, the so-called Camp Cloud encampment outside Kinder Morgan’s facility on Burnaby Mountain, near Vancouver, is being dismantled.
The RCMP moved into the site yesterday, removing 11 people and clearing the way for city crews to start tearing down a makeshift encampment that has sat along the road since November. It began as a single trailer and grew to include a two-storey structure, a cabin, an outdoor shower and numerous tents.
A judge issued an injunction last week giving the protesters 48 hours to leave. Instead, the campers vowed to resist any attempt to remove them and said they’d be prepared to tie themselves to structures.
In the end, five people were arrested and released. Reporters were kept at a distance as police made those arrests and city crews used heavy equipment to tear the camp down.
It’s likely just the beginning, with some predicting a level of opposition to the pipeline that could rival the War in the Woods on B.C.'s Clayoquot Sound in the 80s and 90s. Back then, environmentalists staged blockades and protests, which ended in mass arrests.
Already this year, dozens of protesters have been arrested and convicted, including Green Leader Elizabeth May and NDP MP (and Vancouver mayoral candidate) Kennedy Stewart. Jean Swanson, a well-known activist in Vancouver who is running for council in this fall’s civic election, was recently sentenced to seven days in jail.
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by James Keller in Vancouver and Chris Hannay in Ottawa. If you’re reading this on the web or someone forwarded this email newsletter to you, you can sign up for Politics Briefing and all Globe newsletters here. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
Cancer agencies in two provinces are warning that patients may have received less than the full dose of their prescribed medication because of problems with the way hospitals set up the delivery of intravenous drugs. The system of tubes and pumps used to deliver highly concentrated intravenous cancer drugs created the potential for medication to be left behind after the treatment session ended. About 1,000 patients in Ontario and hundreds in Manitoba are believed to have been affected.
The federal Conservatives are warning Maxime Bernier that he must be a “team player” if he wants to remain in caucus, suggesting there is a limit to how much the party will tolerate from the outspoken MP. The party has faced pressure to discipline Mr. Bernier for tweets that warned of “extreme multiculturalism.”
Wildfire officials in British Columbia say the worst could be yet to come as hot weather in the coming days is expected to create extreme fire conditions. The province is in a state of emergency as more than 500 fires burn, and they say a forecast of hot, dry weather is expected to make the situation more treacherous.
The National Energy Board has approved construction on sections of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion between Alberta and Kinder Morgan. The approval covers what are known as segments one to four, which stretch from the Edmonton terminal to the Darfield pump station near Kamloops, B.C.
Most Canada Revenue Agency auditors think it’s easier for wealthy Canadians and corporations to get around the tax code, CBC reports.
And U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Canada has been purposely left out of the NAFTA talks between the U.S. and Mexico. “We’re not negotiating with Canada right now,” he said. “Their tariffs are too high, their barriers are too strong, so we’re not even talking to them right now. But we’ll see how that works out. It will only work out to our favour.”
Denise Balkissoon (The Globe and Mail) on Toronto Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti: “Mr. Mammoliti’s permanent sideshow hasn’t left much time for actual work. If after two decades in office (almost three, if you count his earlier years at Queen’s Park), he is unable to get his ward some nice parks, as he often moans, then he’s painfully bad at building consensus and working with staff, two essential parts of his job.”
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on Andrew Scheer: “The Conservatives are trying to dispel the image that they don’t embrace diversity, after promising a barbaric cultural practices tip line in the 2015 campaign and Kellie Leitch’s dog-whistle leadership bid. A party that doesn’t embrace diversity will have a hard time winning the diverse suburban ridings up for grabs in next year’s election.”
The Globe and Mail Editorial Board on Turkey’s economy: “But this is more than just reaction to bad trade-policy news; Turkey’s fiscal crisis has been building for months, if not years, as investors have with good reason grown skittish about how Mr. Erdogan has wielded his iron grip on power to pursue a reckless growth-at-all-costs agenda.”
Margaret Wente (The Globe and Mail) on identity politics: “But although Mr. Bernier denies it, he too is playing identity politics. His dystopian description of this country makes no sense to anyone who looks around.”
Cameron Jefferies and Nicolas Rehberg-Besler (The Globe and Mail) on endangered orcas: “In the longer term, the government must produce a holistic stewardship plan for the southern residents and come to terms with how future use and development of the ocean – including the approved Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project and its predicted seven-fold increase in oil tanker traffic in the critical habitat of the southern residents – can be justified.”
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James Keller
Chris Hannay