OTTAWA – NDP MPs Kennedy Stewart (Burnaby – Douglas) and Peter Julian (Burnaby – New Westminster) demanded the Conservative government take responsibility for its failure to organize a meaningful hearing process that would actually take into account what affected communities have to say about the Kinder Morgan pipeline, so that citizens’ concerns are actually respected and resolved.
Today in the House of Commons MPs Stewart and Julian asked the following questions:
Kennedy Stewart:
In the past week, over 50 people have been arrested for protesting Kinder Morgan's test drilling on Burnaby Mountain, and this includes the arrest this weekend of two 11-year-old girls.
These are not radicals; they are regular people who rightly feel shut out of the flawed process to review this pipeline, and they have no faith in the environmental review process gutted by these Conservatives.
Why has the government deliberately set up a process that is primed for this kind of conflict? Let us not pretend the NEB process is any more than a sham.
Peter Julian:
The government's process involves arresting people. It actually should involve consulting Canadians.
This is about getting development right, not doing it at any cost. The Conservatives do not seem to believe in social license. They think it is an ideological term. They should tell that to the folks who are on Burnaby Mountain right now. With no real credible evaluation process, arresting people is not going to give projects like Kinder Morgan's social licence.
Why has the government so thoroughly and completely broken trust with the public on energy project review?
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*For a video of Kennedy Stewart’s question please visit: http://youtu.be/2NYYwqWrLds
*For a video of Peter Julian’s question please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBOVkqxoADk&feature=youtu.be
NDP Critic for Canadian Heritage Peter Julian issued the following statement:
"It has come to our attention that a consultant for a federally funded anti-racism project has a disturbing track record of spewing hate speech online against Jewish and francophone communities. This is completely unacceptable. We call on the Minister of Heritage to take drastic action and terminate his contract.
NDP Heritage Critic Peter Julian issued the following statement:
“Today’s announcement by Hockey Canada is another attempt to delay the important and urgent work to deal with the toxic culture in this organization. While a former Supreme Court Justice is a credible appointment to conduct the review into Hockey Canada, this won’t be the first time the organization undergoes this process.
NDP critic for Canadian Heritage, Peter Julian, made the following statement:
“Canadians are horrified by the incidents of sexual assault and by what they’re hearing from Hockey Canada. They are left with many questions about how this toxic culture is allowed to persist in our sports organizations and what the government is actually doing to ensure this doesn’t happen again.