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Meet the Kid Who Chained Himself to the Kinder Morgan Vehicle to Protest the Trans Mountain Pipeline

Erin Flegg — Sat, 15 Nov 2014 23:53:37 +0000

On Friday, community members from across Vancouver converged on Burnaby Mountain, the site of conflict surrounding the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, after the B.C. Supreme Court approved an injunction to remove a group of protesters, who call themselves the Caretakers of Burnaby Mountain, by Monday at 4 p.m. This article takes an in-depth look at Jakub Markiewicz, an artist, filmmaker and the youngest member of the Caretakers, who recently made headlines after chaining himself to a Kinder Morgan vehicle.

Living in the city, amidst streetlights and headlights and shop signs left on all night, it’s easy to forget just how dark the night can be. Burnaby Mountain isn’t far from its namesake city, or downtown Vancouver for that matter, but by the time six o’clock rolls around (thank you, daylight savings), the darkness feels like a vacuum. The moon, one day past full, is barely enough for me to see where I’m putting my feet in the wet grass.

“After a few nights of not using a headlamp, your eyes really do adjust to the darkness,” Jakub Markiewicz tells me, perched on a boulder the evening of Nov. 7.

He’s returning from a small clearing halfway down the mountain, the spot where Kinder Morgan felled 13 trees, sparking the blockade camp that has been occupying the parking lot at the top of the mountain since early September. I was coming from the camp, a collection of wall tents and tarps that house a kitchen overflowing with donated food, a small covered sitting area and a circle of chairs around the sacred fire, lit a few days ago and kept burning round the clock. It’s quiet tonight and pitch black by 6 p.m., but Markiewicz says it’s not always like this. “I find that there are certain nights during the week where it’s constant humming of the city, a never-ending beehive, and other nights is dead silence.” Some nights the sound of planes overhead and trains from the North Shore interrupt to remind him where he is. “This is a sort of false off the grid. I’m not living in the city but I am benefitting from it at the same time, being so close to it. Although the air is much cleaner here.”

Caretakers of Burnaby Mountain

Markiewicz has been on the mountain day and night, with few exceptions, for a month now. Born and raised in Burnaby near the east side of the mountain, he grew up hiking and camping in the backcountry, often solo, so he’s comfortable spending days on end in the woods regardless of who else is around. At 18, he’s the youngest member of the group that has come to be known at the Caretakers of Burnaby Mountain, a core group of people who have been keeping watch over the mountain since Kinder Morgan arrived in the conservation area with chainsaws to begin survey work. An aspiring artist and filmmaker who spends much of his time with a beat-up SLR over his shoulder, Markiewicz had plans this fall to visit the Unist’ot’en Camp, or perhaps the Sacred Headwaters, but when the call came to defend the mountain, he decided he was needed at home. In the beginning, he visited the site almost every day, just getting to know others doing the same. Before long he was spending every night in a tent. The full moon at the end of last week marked one month of sleeping on the mountain for him. While precocious is certainly one of the first words that comes to mind to describe Markiewicz, he still has the slightly sheepish grin of a teenager and the wide-eyed attention of someone who knows he still has much to learn. His expression is stern and focused as he sets Kinder Morgan pipeline advertising flyers alight with a stick out of the fire in an attempt to get the perfect photo for Twitter. (He said residents regularly drop off the company's flyers to fuel the Caretaker's fire). Over the last couple months Markiewicz has also seen coyotes and a handful of bears in the woods. Early one morning, he stumbled upon a mother and cub in the clearing. “The cub was super friendly, which is not the ideal situation,” he says with a small smile. The camp is occupied by a mishmash of people, who run the full gamut of age, background, experience and worldview. From individuals committed to grassroots land defence to professional activists and longtime Burnaby residents roused by the threat of an oil spill in their backyards, the bedfellows may be strange, but they've found ways to hang together through the worst of it. Earlier in the day that Friday, Markiewicz said several RCMP officers arrived at the camp, a regular occurrence by now. But when an officer attempted to enter the camp, Mel Clifton, a land defender from the Tsimshian and Gitxsan nations refused him entrance. Markiewicz says an altercation ensued that landed Clifton in cuffs and ended with a ride to the Deer Lake RCMP detachment. Members of the Caretakers say the officer responded aggressively to Clifton's refusal of entry, pushing him into a parked car and then onto the ground where he was cuffed and taken down the mountain. A group of Caretakers, worried for Clifton's safety, followed to the detachment to check in on him later that day. Clifton was released with the possibility of an obstruction charge. Jakub Markiewicz holds up his photo which appeared in Kinder Morgan legal documents in a claim against the Caretakers. Photo by Jakub Markiewicz.

Burnaby vs. the National Energy Board

The City of Burnaby also opposes the Trans Mountain expansion, so when the federal National Energy Board ruled the municipality does not have the right to keep Kinder Morgan off the mountain, the protesters redoubled their commitment. On Wednesday, October 29, company surveyors arrived for work to find about a dozen bodies blocking the trail. When they returned to their vehicle, they found Markiewicz chained beneath it. He was arrested but not charged. Jakub Markiewicz locked to the Kinder Morgan company vehicle. Photo from Vancouver Observer. Photo by Zack Embree. The following day, Kinder Morgan filed for an injunction against the protesters, asking the courts to prevent the group from obstructing further survey work. The company also announced it would sue a handful of protesters close to $6 million for delays and lost profits. Included in the suit are Caretakers Mia Nissen and Adam Gold, activists who made news by chaining themselves to the gates at the Chevron refinery in Burnaby this summer, as well as SFU professors Stephen Cullis and Lynne Quarmby and two others simply named John and Jane Doe. Markiewicz wasn’t named in the lawsuit, but information and detailed photos of him appeared in the documents Kinder Morgan put forward in court, alleging that protesters' facial expressions constituted assault. The suit against the protesters is being criticized as a SLAPP suit, or a strategic lawsuit against public participation. Professor Quarmby recently told the CBC she hopes legislation will eventually be introduced to prevent this kind of suit from being filed in the first place. "There is very much something that our provincial government could do," she said. "We used to have anti-SLAPP legislation in British Columbia but we don't have that anymore. It's gone and that's why I'm in trouble, I think." A crowdfunding campaign to raise legal funds for the defendents brought in $40,000 in three days. The total has now surpassed $50,000.

All in the Family

This is my third time on the mountain, and having neither seen nor heard word of any parents, I have to ask. But Markiewicz just shrugs and says it’s no surprise to them. “They’re fine with it. It’s just regular, good old me,” he smiles. He visits when he can, and while both parents keep mostly out of sight, Markiewicz says he learned both photography and the inclination to stand up for what he believes in from his father. In Poland in the early 1980s, the senior Markiewicz joined the Solidarnosc, the first independent labour union in a Soviet country and the catalyst behind a widespread non-violent, anti-communist social movement credited with a significant role in the downfall of communism. When he was arrested by the Zomo (the state police) and thrown in prison, he managed to smuggle in a small camera with him. “He taught me how to take photos on a large format camera, medium format camera and 35-millimetre,” Markiewicz says. He has been learning digital on his own, but finds it a little disappointing. “Actually developing the negatives in the dark room makes you appreciate each shot more. You can actually think, should I take this photo? Will it mean anything to me? Will it mean anything to anyone else, and is there a story? You’re physically handling it. With digital I find that everyone just points and shoots and hopes for the best without actually learning how light affects the process and how you affect light.” Markiewicz was accepted into the photography program at Emily Carr University of Art and Design for this fall, but turned it down in favour of getting a little more life experience. In addition to finishing high school, he also completed the matura, the exit exam written by high school students in a number of European countries that will allow him to study in Europe if he decides he wants to. Having screened a few short films in festivals, including the Vancouver International Film Fest in 2011, he’s considering the London Film School, or maybe something in graphic design. For now he seems happy to live on the mountain, confident this is where he needs to be, at least until the end of this fight — however long it lasts. Support for the cause has grown significantly after the court granted Kinder Morgan's injunction, with NGOs like Council of Canadians and 350.org jumping in to spread the word and increase support for the Caretakers. But I get the impression Markiewicz isn’t terribly concerned about the decision one way or another. It’s not that he isn’t angry, especially with the conduct of the NEB, but he isn’t disillusioned the way many young activists seem to be. I don’t think it ever occurred to him to put any stock in such institutions in the first place. Either way, he’s not going anywhere. “I live close by. I focus my time and energy on this since it’s what I feel is the most important issue that I can contribute to at the moment.” *Editor's Note: Since this article was published, DeSmog Canada has learned that the author, Erin Flegg, was a participant in the protest on Burnaby Mountain. DeSmog Canada was not aware of this at the time of publication. We remain committed to transparency and disclosing any conflicts of interest. Lead Image Credit: Self-Portrait by Jakub Jerzy Markiewicz.

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Decision on Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Oil Pipeline Delayed Until After Next Federal Election

Emma Gilchrist — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 22:09:38 +0000

Canada's National Energy Board (NEB) announced today that it is stopping the clock on the review of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion due to the company’s new proposed corridor through Burnaby, B.C. — which will push a decision on the project back to after the 2015 federal election.

The board will take a seven-month timeout from its 15-month timeline between July 11, 2014, and Februrary 3, 2015, to allow Kinder Morgan time to file studies for its new corridor through Burnaby Mountain, according to a letter to intervenors sent today.

That pushes the board’s deadline to file its report on the project with cabinet back seven months from July 2, 2015, to Jan. 25, 2016.

“The significant thing is that this decision now won’t be made until after the next federal election. It’ll be up to the next Prime Minister to make that call,” says Karen Campbell, staff lawyer with Ecojustice.

“From a campaign perspective, it certainly gives some wind in the sails of those who want to make sure this isn’t a fait accompli before the next election,” she says.

But Campbell also cautioned that there are still a lot of shortcomings in the process that the energy board has not addressed.

That’s a concern echoed by Gregory McDade, legal counsel for the City of Burnaby.

“There are so many other incomplete items that need work,” McDade says. “We’ve been pushing all along for a proper public hearing with cross-examination and evidence and the NEB said they couldn’t do that because of the tight timeline. Now that we have the time, why aren’t we doing a proper public hearing?”

McDade says that without cross-examination, the energy board’s review is not legitimate. He noted how Kinder Morgan failed to answer many of the questions put to them through the “information request” process, which he described as a “colossal joke.”

“Stalling it seven months doesn’t help at all if you’re not going to properly examine the evidence,” he said. “It just puts the decision off.”

Chris Tollefson, executive director of the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria, says this ruling is just a small step toward fixing the problem and that the entire process needs to be put on hold until Kinder Morgan’s application is complete.

As of right now, the rest of the hearings are scheduled to move forward more or less as per the previous schedule.

“The board has now recognized that this process was not working and that the timelines were unrealistic,” Tollefson says. “What we would call upon the board now to do is to revisit its decision to eliminate cross-examination from this process.”

Any which way, the Conservatives will be in the limelight over their support for heavy oil projects on B.C.'s coast in the 2015 election, according to Kai Nagata, energy and democracy director at Dogwood Initiative, a B.C. democracy group.

"It'll be a live issue for sure," Nagata says. "The way Kinder Morgan is going, the more time the NEB gives them to alienate landowners and First Nations, the more likely they are to remind people of Enbridge."

Kinder Morgan’s proposed expansion would ship 590,000 barrels of oilsands bitumen to Burnaby each day, where it would be loaded onto 400 oil tankers each year.

— With files from Carol Linnitt

Photo: Rod Raglin via Flickr

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Oral Hearings Quietly Vanish From Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline Review

Emma Gilchrist — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 17:11:47 +0000

A lawyer representing the City of Burnaby says the National Energy Board (NEB) has turned its review of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline into a “mere paperwork exercise” by cutting all cross-examination from the process.

“We were expecting that there would be public hearings and cross-examination of the evidence,” Gregory McDade said at a City of Burnaby information session last week. “There are no hearings … There will be no public examination of Kinder Morgan’s evidence whatsoever.”

In a YouTube video from the information session, McDade deconstructs the NEB’s April 2nd “hearing order,” noting that the only way for the City of Burnaby to raise concerns is now by submitting written “information requests.” This applies to all intervenors, including the Province of B.C. and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

“They call it a hearing order, but it should be called a ‘no hearing’ order,” McDade quipped.

“What we have here is a mere paperwork exercise. It is not a hearing and it is not public. It is not independent. All three panelists on the National Energy Board are from the oil and gas industry.”

Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain proposal would triple the amount of oil the company ships to Burnaby and increase the number of oil tankers travelling through Vancouver Harbour and the Gulf Islands seven-fold.

McDade said he’d planned on calling citizens of affected Burnaby neighbourhoods to testify, but now that won’t be possible.

“Our chances to represent your voices and your questions are no longer there,” he told Burnaby residents at the information session. “It’s going to have to go through information requests.”

On Saturday, hundreds of citizens turned out for a rally against the Kinder Morgan pipeline in Burnaby. Photo: Jennifer Castro via Flickr.

The only true oral hearing segment of the process is for the presentation, and questioning of, aboriginal traditional evidence. The NEB calls the final summary arguments "oral hearings," but they are near the end of the process and no new evidence can be presented at that time.

Karen Campbell, a staff lawyer for Ecojustice, told DeSmog Canada the information request process is no substitute for cross-examination.

“A virtual exchange of documents online, which is what this process primarily is, will not allow intervenors to really get to the bottom of the issues around this proposal," Campbell said. “Given how utterly contentious this project is, providing an opportunity for oral cross-examination is a critical piece of the puzzle.”

"Radical change" to process

During the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline hearings, there were more than 90 days of cross-examination. Chris Tollefson spent 26 hours cross-examining Enbridge witnesses as legal counsel for Nature Canada and BC Nature — groups he’s also representing during the Kinder Morgan review.

“It’s a radical change. It’s a fundamental change,” Tollefson told DeSmog Canada about the Trans Mountain review. “I’m not sure what’s left of the hearing process to the Trans Mountain hearing. The exchange of the written questions and answers is the prelude to the main event, but now there’s no main event.”

He added: “In any process where you’re trying to get at the truth, trying to test the evidence, it’s absolutely essential that you be able to pose questions to live witnesses who are under oath and who are required to answer the questions.”

Cross-examination crucial during Enbridge Northern Gateway hearings

Tollefson said that during the Enbridge hearings, cross-examination highlighted some of the most contentious issues, which were ultimately used to challenge the panel’s ruling in the federal court of appeal. He suspects the panel reviewing Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain proposal will be called upon to revisit this decision.

“If they don’t, the concern is that the evidence that they’re going to be relying on to make their recommendation will have not have been properly tested,” he said. “I think it cuts both ways, because not only is the proponent’s evidence not being put to the test, but neither is the evidence of any other party. The panel, in my view, is going to be hampered in doing its job.”

Tollefson said in a process restricted to written answers, it’s very easy to avoid directly and completely answering questions.

Timeline condensed by federal government

The Trans Mountain review has been condensed after the federal government’s 2012 budget bill overhauled environmental assessments and put a new 18-month timeline on reviews conducted by the National Energy Board.

“It has been put under a completely unrealistic timeline,” Tollefson said.

Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan has said he would be willing to stand in front of a bulldozer to stop Kinder Morgan’s project from going ahead.

“I’m prepared to fight this up until the bitter end,” he told Global News. “I’m incensed over the way we’ve been treated.”

On Saturday, hundreds of citizens rallied against the project in Burnaby, B.C.’s third largest city and the site of Kinder Morgan’s oil storage tanks and at least two major Kinder Morgan oil spills.

Community information sessions on the project have turned into rallying cries, with city officials frustrated with the NEB process.

“What we really need to do is let the government know that no public hearings is not an acceptable approach to this matter,” McDade said at last week’s information session.

Photo: Caffeinehit via Flickr

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