PEOPLE OF THE INLET
With the Transmountain Pipeline Expansion approved by the Canadian government, the Burrard Inlet in Vancouver, B.C. faces serious ecological risks. Inlet residents Cedar George-Parker and his tribe, the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, are fighting back.
Story by Grace McCarthy | Photos by Sadie Sullivan
Pink picket signs wave among a crowd of over 10,000 people gathering in front of British Columbia’s Vancouver Art Gallery for the October 2019 climate strike. Cedar George-Parker, a member of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation and Tulalip Tribes, who has devoted his youth to fighting the Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion, stands on the museum steps.
“If we keep this up, it’s going to be death to our planet. It’s going to be death to us,” the 22-year-old warns the crowd.
George-Parker’s journey with the Trans Mountain pipeline began with a promise in 2015, exactly one year after five of his classmates were shot at Marysville-Pilchuck High School in Washington state. After seeing the lack of adequate counseling his peers received, he started questioning why governments were funneling billions of dollars into the oil industry when mental health services are critically underfunded.
“There’s so much bad in the world. Why add to it?” he said.
He vowed to make the world a better place, starting by blocking the proposed pipeline expansion that could threaten a marine ecosystem rich in biological diversity, the Salish Sea. It would nearly triple the oil carried across the Burrard Inlet, where his father’s family has lived for thousands of years. There’s up to an 87 percent chance oil will spill into the inlet in the next 50 years, further threatening its dwindling orca and salmon population, according to the Trans Mountain Assessment Report commissioned by the Tsleil-Waututh Nation. Fighting expansion of the pipeline has taken George-Parker from that Vancouver inlet to the United Nations and beyond.
Under this proposed expansion, the pipeline would increase from transporting 300,000 to 890,000 barrels of oil per day. It will stretch from Edmonton, Alberta to the Burrard Inlet, home to the Tsleil-Waututh Nation. The inlet contains Vancouver’s primary port area, the most active harbor in Canada. It is already experiencing environmental decline due to over harvesting and pollution from industrialization. George-Parker is part of the first generation in his family unable to eat salmon from the inlet or use its water for ceremonies.
“I know what I’m doing is bigger than just me. I put the movement first,” George-Parker said. “I put this first because it’s also part of my culture, sticking up for the land and the people.”
He is not the first member of the George family to fight for the land and the people who call it home. George-Parker’s father, Rueben George, has a history of campaigning against the pipeline, too.
Children like George-Parker’s 9-year-old brother are the reason he fights to protect the land, even when it wears on him. This often meant being away from family, sacrificing birthdays and holidays spent together, said George-Parker.
Vancouver lawyer Eugene Kung specializes in environmental justice and pipeline law and is currently working with the Tsleil-Waututh Nation to stop the pipeline expansion. He watched George-Parker grow from a teen wrestling with grief, to a man leading the indigenous fight to protect traditional lands. Kung saw his young friend become grounded in his own identity and spirituality.
“It’s been wonderful to see him grow into a role of doing more public speaking, speaking his own truth and being his authentic self,” Kung said.
The long standing efforts of George-Parker and indigenous communities to protect their land are being echoed by a surge of youth environmentalists striking against climate change. In September 2019, 6 million people around the world flooded the streets during the United Nation’s climate summit to demand greater governmental action, inspired by Swedish 16-year-old Greta Thunberg’s viral climate strike.
“I think it’s beautiful that young people are standing up now because if they don’t, what’s our future going to look like?” George-Parker said. “It’s not really environmentalism anymore. It’s just saving the world.”
To protect the land, members of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation transitioned from peaceful paddling protests to publishing a 1,200 page assessment detailing the potential effects of the pipeline on their title, rights, and interests. In March 2018, about 10,000 people followed members of the Nation to build the Kwekwecnewtxw, or “a place to watch from”. The single story wooden structure, reminiscent of a house, is used to watch over pipeline activity.
Since 1953, oil has flowed through the Trans Mountain Pipeline, occasionally escaping its confines. Kinder Morgan, the company that owns the pipeline, has reported a total of 84 spills originating from the system since 1961.
People assume if the pipeline expansion gets completed then the protests have not been successful, said David Tindall, a sociology professor at the University of British Columbia. But he predicts it will still have an impact.
“Because there’s been so much pressure and resistance in the pipeline,” Tindall said, “I think it’s much less likely that new projects of this scale will proceed.”
George-Parker lead one of Vancouver’s biggest climate marches along with Greta Thunberg in 2019 and stood up to Justin Trudeau — all before his 23rd birthday. But for George-Parker, the most outstanding memory is the sunny day of Aug. 30, 2018. On that day, the Tsleil-Waututh Nation received word that the Federal Court of Appeals ruled in favor of ending the pipeline’s construction, citing the Canadian government’s insufficient consultation with indigenous groups.
“So much time I spent on this, how much I missed out on being young, how much I missed out on family. I cried,” George-Parker said.
The pipeline expansion was reapproved by the Canadian government in June 2019, contrasting the national climate emergency they declared just the day before. September brought another turning point in the national debate. Six First Nations, including the Tsleil-Waututh, are appealing the approval in the Federal Court of Appeals. After George-Parker’s four-year battle against the pipeline, the future remains as murky as the oil that would run through it.
Fighting for generations to come, George-Parker stood on the museum steps with members of the Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam and other First Nations as youth asked government leaders to protect the air and water for their future. After speaking, he took his place at the front of the march alongside other indigenous activists, leading participants through downtown Vancouver.
“No matter how much I’ve traveled, I couldn’t wait to get home to my culture. I love my culture and I love my people and I love my land,” George-Parker said. “I’m not going anywhere. We will fight and we won’t stop.”
