Mission accomplished for pipeline protesters
Hearings cancelled for second day after disruption
The participants had taken their seats with their speeches in hand, the commissioners had entered the room and the cameras were in place to broadcast live online.
Then a protester charged the head table and what was supposed to be the first day of hearings held in Montreal into TransCanada’s proposed Energy East pipeline degenerated into squabbles between proponents and opponents, arrests by police and stakeholders walking out on the process.
Before the hearings could get underway Monday morning, security guards watched as protesters gathered near the front of the conference room, locked arms and held a banner saying “Only communities can grant permission.” Calling the hearings illegitimate and a masquerade, they chanted that they wouldn’t leave until the National Energy Board cancelled the session.
After roughly 30 minutes, Montreal police — who were already outside keeping an eye on duelling protests between Energy East supporters and opponents — were called in to force them out.
Most left peacefully. The leader of the protest was tackled to the ground after refusing to leave.
“We’ll be back tomorrow!” he screamed as he was escorted out of the conference room.
Three protesters were arrested: a 35-year-old man faces charges of assaulting a police officer while a 44-year-old man and a 29-year-old woman were arrested for obstructing police work. But in the end, the protesters got what they wanted.
“In light of this morning ’s events, we have no choice but to cancel today’s hearings,” NEB Director Jean-Denis Charlebois announced roughly an hour after they were scheduled to begin.
“We want to ensure that we can proceed in an efficient manner, but most importantly in a safe manner for everyone involved.”
Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, who was scheduled to present a brief Monday morning, was the first participant to leave the room as the situation degenerated.
Coderre, a vocal opponent of the Energy East project, had called for the hearings to be postponed last week.
His statements came after Vancouver-based website the National Observer reported that two of the commissioners on the NEB’s panel for the hearings discussed the pipeline project with former Quebec premier Jean Charest while he was acting as a consultant for TransCanada.
“Our point of view remains the same,” Coderre said outside the room.
“We need answers. Right now we don’t have answers. This is not a time to take chances,” he said of the pipeline project. “And again, I think the NEB needs to rethink how this is happening right now.”
The NEB announced Monday evening that it was also cancelling Tuesday’s hearings.
“This decision was taken in light of disturbances at this morning’s hearings, in which violence threatened the safety of everyone present at the meeting,” the board said in a statement.
The NEB said it would announce on Tuesday how it plans on eventually hearing from the Montreal participants who were scheduled for this week’s sessions.
Though a dozen or so anti-pipeline protesters managed to have Monday ’s hearings cancelled, they were outnumbered by union representatives who showed support for the project by picketing outside the building.
The $15.7-billion proposed pipeline would carry oil from Western Canada to terminals in New Brunswick and Quebec.
Michel Trépanier, president of a large union of construction workers, said it could mean more than 3,500 jobs for the sector in the next three to five years. That’s not counting jobs that could come from maintenance work on the pipeline in the future, he added.
“As construction workers, we depend on projects. And at first glance this is really a good one,” Trépanier said.
“We’re not giving TransCanada a free pass. But let’s at least have a debate. At the end of the day — economically, environmentally and socially — we have to decide if it’s a good project. But we have to stop saying no right away to every project that comes to the table.
“All we’re asking is that construction workers be taken into consideration,” he said.
Three chiefs who were supposed to participate on Monday from the Mohawk councils of Kahnawake, Akwesasne and Kanesatake held a joint news conference instead after learning that the hearings had been cancelled. Asked if they felt like they lost their chance to express their thoughts on Energy East at the hearings, they said their goal wasn’t to address the commissioners in the first place.
“It was not necessarily about talking to the NEB,” said Mohawk Council of Kahnawake Grand Chief Joe Norton. “Because we don’t have any faith in that structure. It was more that we knew that the hearing process was going to be (broadcasted) to the general public. That was our intended target. Not the NEB.”
Their primary goal, as always, is to ensure the safety of their land and people, Norton added.
“And to be able to enjoy the abundance of that land — be it by hunting, fishing, trapping, or anything of that nature — and the freedom of being able to go into those areas and not have to be concerned about what can happen in the future.”