At the thousands-strong demonstration against Kinder Morgan earlier this month in Vancouver, I lounged in a sailboat in False Creek with kayaktivists swarming around me, looking up under the Cambie Bridge at a very large homemade "NO KINDER MORGAN" banner that my friends had stitched in fishnet.

As I watched the horizon, hordes of righteous, beaming souls started a police-escorted procession and then moved across the bridge and into downtown. The demo ended with spectacular speeches by a range of First Nations displaying a singular commitment to defeat Kinder Morgan's plan to massively expand its Trans Mountain Pipeline, which runs from Alberta to Burnaby, B.C.

The fresh new face Canada showed the world at the Paris COP21 climate meetings held out hope for many Canadian climate activists that a national course change was in the works.

In its less than a decade in power, the Harper government extinguished multiple important Canadian environmental laws, muzzled climate scientists, harassed environmental NGOs, created "anti-terrorism" legislation that targets First Nations and other pipeline activists, and generally introduced regressive and reactionary social policy while promoting Canada as the world's new petro-state.

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Author's note: This article is meant to be both deadly serious and parody. It attempts humour and commits unforgiveable psychological reductionism of political issues. It is hoped the reader will discern the message behind the form of delivery.

rabble is expanding our Parliamentary Bureau and we need your help! Support us on Patreon today! 

rabble is expanding our Parliamentary Bureau and we need your help! Support us on Patreon today! 

Witness a real-time drama happening in Canada that is representative of the political absurdities unfolding in the Paris COP 21 process -- and that provides a stark example of establishment NGO politics versus the authentic climate justice movement.

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"As I see it, the world may be warming, but politics are frozen. We talk endlessly of climate change and yet we have not created any climate for change."

-- Henrietta L. Moore, Imagine 2020 -- Art and Climate Change

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(My name is Brad Hornick. I am male, a student and settler on Coast Salish Territories. Like Hedges, I have worked and travelled in war zones, and I am not an expert on issues of gender violence. I have lived and worked in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, including working in a small capacity for one of the organizations listed below many years ago. The relevance of my response to Hedges is that I am on the State of Extraction organizing committee.  All the views expressed within this article are mine alone.)

"The call came to protestors assembled at borehole 2 on Burnaby Mountain: 'Kinder Morgan has arrived! Get your asses down here.' I ran to the motorcycle and hurried down to Drummond Walk. A few comrades were just starting to follow KM workers -- 2 hardhats with chain saws, a couple management types and a few security guards. I raged internally as I accompanied them into the forest at the ready, but not knowing what the next step was...

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Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
-- Dylan Thomas

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Burnaby residents and community members have been conducting a peaceful vigil on Burnaby Mountain since August to ensure that Kinder Morgan's Mountain Pipeline geotechnical survey work will not proceed in preparation for a new tar sands bitumen pipeline.

Five people have been served an injunction and a $5.6-million lawsuit by Kinder Morgan. Pete McMartin from the Globe and Mail on Monday called this "Big Oil Acting as a Big Bully," calling the lawsuit "excessive" and the protesters "martyrs."