Northern Gateway opponents set sights on federal government, courts

VANCOUVER – Opponents of the Northern Gateway say the war against the pipeline will now be waged against the federal government, where the decision rests after a federal review panel gave the project a green light.

A coalition of environmental groups says Enbridge (TSX:ENB) may have the panel’s approval but it does not have public approval.

Gerald Amos, of the Friends of Wild Salmon and former Haisla chief, says “big oil” has bought and paid for the federal government, which faces an election in 2015.

Amos was joined at a Vancouver news conference by representatives of Forest Ethics Advocacy, the Fort St. James Sustainability Coalition, the Living Oceans Society and the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union the day after the National Energy Board released a panel report approving the pipeline.

Ben West of Forest Ethics says three options remain for stopping Northern Gateway: legal action, political action and direct action.

West says he hopes it doesn’t come to direct action but if it does, the protests will make the clashes over old-growth logging in British Columbia two decades ago “look like a walk in the park.”