Environmental activists take pipeline protests online during Covid-19

OTTAWA — As construction ramps up on major pipeline projects in Canada and the U.S., activists are taking protests online and considering options for civil disobedience in an age of physical distancing.

Protesters opposing the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to B.C.’s Lower Mainland and the Coastal GasLink pipeline through the northern part of the province say they’ve canceled demonstrations and events due to Covid-19. Their strategy depends increasingly on phone blitzes and social media campaigns, as climate activists across the globe have moved online to try to stay relevant. But with pipe going in, they’re also thinking about on-the-ground actions they can take without risking their health.

“It only takes one person to block a highway,” said Kanahus Manuel, a Secwepemc spokesperson for the Tiny House Warriors, a group opposed to the expansion of the Trans Mountain oil export pipeline. “If we stand down, it means our land is destroyed. ... We still have big plans to stop this pipeline, and we’re going to stop it.”

Construction on big pipeline projects, deemed an essential service, has continued through the pandemic, though work slowed during spring break-up, when thawing soil makes it difficult to move heavy equipment. Some Indigenous groups have expressed concern about the construction as Covid-19 spreads, given the possibility of fly-in workers introducing the virus to remote communities.

The companies behind the pipelines say they've taken various measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19, including staggering work shifts to reduce the number of people on any given site, following physical distancing guidelines and implementing temperature checks. Asked in late March about construction continuing on the Trans Mountain expansion, which is owned by the federal government, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was confident the Crown corporation building the project is “following all the best medical advice.”

In a statement to POLITICO, a Trans Mountain spokesperson said the corporation has not reduced its workforce due to Covid-19 and has not experienced delays. The pipeline expansion is expected to be in service by December 2022. A spokesperson for TC Energy, the company building the Coastal GasLink pipeline, said the summer construction program is being finalized and will include "a measured and gradual ramp up of work over the coming weeks and months."

With construction picking up through the summer, those who oppose the projects are grappling with new limitations they face due to Covid-19.

Rueben George, manager of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s Sacred Trust initiative, whose mandate is to stop the Trans Mountain pipeline, said members of his First Nation and others had been planning to travel along the pipeline route this summer holding town hall meetings, but that’s now been canceled.

George said his focus now is on an ongoing legal challenge of the pipeline that the Tsleil-Waututh and three other Indigenous groups are hoping will be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada. “We’re looking at the best route for us to win,” he said.

In Blue River, B.C., 140 miles north of Kamloops, Manuel said the Tiny House Warriors are aiming to build another four tiny houses this spring and fall, in addition to the six they’ve already constructed in the path of the Trans Mountain pipeline. “It might go a little slower for these two builds, but we’re still going to make it happen,” she said. Still, the protest camp has had to restrict access to volunteers to prevent the spread of the virus, and is requiring anyone who visits to self-isolate for 14 days before their arrival. “It is a challenge,” she said.

Manuel and others say they’re still planning direct action this summer, even if they have to do it wearing gloves and masks while keeping six feet apart. But mass demonstrations of the sort that have blocked traffic in Vancouver and made national headlines for the arrest of federal politicians are out of the question, even if there were traffic to block.

Peter McCartney, a climate campaigner with the Vancouver-based Wilderness Committee, said his organization had planned a mass demonstration in March, around the two-year anniversary of the major anti-pipeline protest that led to the arrests of then-Green Party leader Elizabeth May and former MP Kennedy Stewart, who has since been elected Vancouver mayor.

“Obviously that’s not possible now,” he said, explaining that activists are looking at “more distributed, small actions that people can take.”

The spokesperson for Trans Mountain said the company “respect[s] the right to peaceful, lawful expressions of opinions,” but pointed to a 2018 court injunction that prevents protesters from blocking work sites.

McCartney said protesters are turning increasingly to online demonstrations. The committee has launched a monthly event that involves bombarding a target with phone calls about the pipeline — last time, it was Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

Activists fighting the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern B.C. have also taken protests online. Last month, they organized a rally asking people to bombard KKR with phone calls and tweets demanding the investment firm divest from the pipeline project.

Still, it’s a far cry from the nationwide protests that blocked rail traffic and galvanized opposition to the natural gas pipeline back in February, before the pandemic took hold in Canada. Molly Wickham, a spokesperson for the Gidimt'en checkpoint along the pipeline route, said the protest camps along the Coastal GasLink right-of-way, erected by members of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, are still occupied. But the protesters have had to cancel planned activities, including an Indigenous women’s self-defense course, because of the virus.

The lull during the past couple of months has given pipeline opponents time to think about how to proceed with direct action in spite of Covid-19, Wickham said. “We don’t have to be standing, linking arms or right next to one another,” she said. “We’re thinking about what that’s going to look like on the territory.”

South of the border, opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would deliver Alberta crude oil to U.S. markets, are dealing with similar questions. Judith LeBlanc, director of the Native Organizers Alliance and a member of the Caddo Tribe of Oklahoma, said internet access can be a barrier for many Indigenous protesters. “We have to be much more systematic and much more planned,” she said. “We can’t rely on spontaneity in a moment like this.”

The spokesperson for TC Energy, which is also building Keystone XL, said construction on the Canadian portion of that pipeline will begin later this summer, with pre-construction activities continuing in the U.S.

But protesters aren’t only reckoning with limits on the types of activities they can organize — they’re also faced with a public that, these days, isn’t paying much attention. “The big thing is that it’s no longer the center of people’s minds,” said Jim Leyden of the Mountain Protectors, a group opposed to the Trans Mountain expansion. “We just really need to get that back on the front burner.”

There’s value in mass demonstrations that isn’t easy to replicate online, McCartney said, especially when pipeline projects aren’t top-of-mind for most people. “It’s going to be difficult to not have those moments. I think they do just as much for movement cohesion and spirit as they do for public attention,” he said.

“What those movement moments do for us … is remind us that we have these 10,000 people behind the opposition to this project, and that keeps us going. Without those, we just have to know that those people are there.”