If Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline violates First Nation land in B.C., it's going to face serious pushback.
A Quebec Mohawk chief says there will be civil disobedience if the government breaks its promises to First Nations communities.
“If the government insists on ignoring its commitment to First Nations, we’re looking at unrest in many areas of the country, not just in British Columbia," Kanesatake Grand Chief Serge Simon told the Montreal Gazette.
Simon co-founded the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion, a group of 115 First Nations chiefs from across North America.
Grand Chief Serge Simon, Mohawk Council of Kanesatake speaks at a conference in Winnipeg on November 29.
The Alliance is opposed to any pipeline project that would lead to an expansion of Alberta's oilsands, including the newly approved Trans Mountain and Line 3 pipelines, and the high-profile Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that both the Trans Mountain expansion project and Enbridge's Line 3 would be allowed to move forward.
If both pipelines are constructed, they will have the capacity to ship over 1.5 million barrels of crude each day.
Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr said Thursday that the federal government won't require First Nations' consent for the pipelines to go forward.
"I don't care what Jim Carr says that no consent is necessary ... Consent, it's what we are demanding and he will never get our consent, not for something like this ... What if we gave Canada 20 Standing Rocks? I wonder if his position will change then?" Simon said in an interview with APTN.
Carr has warned opponents of the projects to keep their resistance non-violent.
“If people choose for their own reasons not to be peaceful, then the government of Canada – through its defence forces, through its police forces – will ensure that people are kept safe,” Carr said, according to BNN.
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