Environmental Activists Crash Cabinet Swearing Ceremony at Government House

Two dozen environmental activists staged a demonstration outside Government House in Victoria, as hundreds of guests lined up for the cabinet swearing-in ceremony, to demand a halt to the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) natural gas pipeline project in northern BC.

While the group did not fly any organisation’s banner, the protest was put together by members of Dogwood, the Wilderness Committee, and Stand.earth, standing in solidarity with members of the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en nations. Coast Salish Matriarch Grandma Losah led the procession.

Security at the event was assertive but otherwise lax, as the security detail consisted of only four guards who could hardly prevent several times their numbers from walking onto the property. Of course the guards claimed we were trespassing on private property, a bold lie which we brushed off as we proceeded beyond the gate to the entrance. This was a non-arrestable action and the participants did not attempt to block traffic nor the entrance, but merely stood outside chanting and airing their grievances to an apathetic audience doing its best to ignore the performance.

Environmental advocates have had issues with the PRGT pipeline, which is to deliver Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to Prince Rupert on the west coast for export to Asian markets, from the onset of the project. Their main grievances are of course its environmental toll, from the direct impacts of its construction to the more subtle effects on our climate. But they also protest the economic apartheid on northern first nations which coerces these communities into consenting to such developments.

Speaking of which, multiple speakers today lamented that keeping northern indigenous communities economically isolated contributed to a plethora of social ills, ranging from the toxic drug crisis to that of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG). Indeed the pipeline is to run parallel to the so-called Highway of Tears, starting from Prince George, which also leads to Prince Rupert.

While there has been some physical contact between the security detail and protesters at various moments throughout the demonstration, no one was injured and the ceremony unfolded with minimal disruption. The activists dispersed after about an hour. At no point did law enforcement intervene.

Former health minister Adrian Dix was today sworn at Minister of Energy and Climate Solutions. Given wide-ranging criticism of his performance at his previous ministry, like his handling of the COVID pandemic, the acute shortage of family doctors and nurses, and the aforementioned toxic drug crisis, one may be forgiven for being apprehensive of his nomination to a ministry named after agendas that mix as well as oil and water—in all but the most literal sense.