Dying to stop Kinder Morgan

On Sunday, Aug 16, Galen, Gary, Larissa, Jens and some adventurous volunteers headed to Vancouver’s English Bay to capture the attention of Sunday beach-goers with some dramatic street theatre.

There were two people in hazmat suits, while the rest of the group coughed and hacked and eventually “died” to show the effects of an oil spill from the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline.

“We were drawing attention to a recent report commissioned by Metro Vancouver that said that a potential oil spill in the metro Vancouver area could expose up to a million people to  unsafe levels of benzene.”

The creative demonstration was introduced by Tsleil-Waututh councilor, Charlene Aleck.

From the Vancouver Sun: “If you’re on the seawall enjoying your day and there’s 400 tankers coming through here, you can rest assured that the likelihood of an accident is very, very high over 50 years,” climate and energy campaigner Larissa Stendie bellowed through a loudspeaker.

While she spoke, volunteers lay immobile on the ground beside brightly coloured pieces of paper with messages like “Was just tanning, now I can’t breathe” and “Coma coming on.” Two men in yellow haz-mat suits roamed the area, drawing chalk outlines around “dead” volunteers lying on the pavement.”

After the event, the team rounded up signatures for our climate action petition which calls for the Province to withdraw from the National Energy Board review of Kinder Morgan’s proposal and conduct an independent review.

Read more about our climate action recommendations and sign the petition today.