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Pipeline protesters target MLAs
NV demo one of many across the province James Weldon jweldon@nsnews.com
MORE than 200 protesters descended on the office of North Vancouver MLA Naomi Yamamoto Wednesday as part of a province-wide effort to derail plans for new and larger oil pipelines to B.C.’s coast. Waving placards and carrying umbrellas against the rain, the demonstrators gathered at midday outside the East 15th Street office block to voice their opposition to Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline and plans by oil giant Kinder Morgan to expand another line on Burrard Inlet. “Over the past few years, we’ve mobilized hundreds of thousands of people against these pipeline and tanker projects,” said Calvin deGroot, speaking into a megaphone. “And our politicians aren’t listening to us.” The Capilano student — a leader of the rally who describes himself as a former NEWS photo Mike Wakefield climate change denier — said the projects come with a “huge MORE than 200 protesters gathered outside the office of North Vancouver-Lonsdale MLA Naomi Yamamoto Wednesday to protest the risk” of oil spills and tanker proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline and the planned expansion of Kinder Morgan’s pipeline on Burrard Inlet. disasters on the coast, and that the associated approval process is an erosion of democracy. “We’ve unified in a way we haven’t seen before, and we’re only going to get louder,” he said. “We will not be silenced until the death certificates of Enbridge and Kinder Morgan are in our hands.” The event was among several dozen organized by activists Jane Seyd in both languages, and is making an effort to make sure he’s outside selected MLA offices across the province Wednesday. The jseyd@nsnews.com exposed to both. co-ordinated protests came two days after a larger rally outside “It’s hard, but at the end it’s worth it,” he said. the provincial legislature in Victoria, which drew several thousand WHEN Nasir Mirlohi moved to North Vancouver Mirlohi and his family are among more than 26 per cent demonstrators. of the North Shore population that list a language other than from Iran four years ago with his wife and son, Megan Martin, a North Vancouver resident and another of the they joined the almost 11,000 people on the English or French as their first language. event’s organizers, also spoke at the rally, saying the pipeline plans That’s lower than the 40 per cent figure seen across the North Shore whose first language is Farsi. must be scrapped for the benefit of coming generations. Greater Vancouver region as a whole, but in keeping with the “We are standing up to make sure our coast, our environment, Mirlohi, 37, said his family still speaks mainly in Farsi at wide diversity of languages likely to be heard at bus stops and in our communities and our global climate future aren’t put at risk of home. But after four years in the school system, his son, now 13, groceries stores around the Lower Mainland. devastation,” said Martin. “No tankers, no pipelines, no way!” The information released this week by Statistics Canada is fluent in both Farsi and English. Martin and deGroot’s words were greeted with cheers from the “We sometimes have to explain things in English to him,” pointed to Farsi, the Persian language, as the language most said Mirlohi. See Yamamoto page 3 See Chinese page 3 He hopes that his son grows up continuing to be fluent
English not mother tongue for 26% of N. Shore
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