The fragile victory by protesters at Standing Rock has galvanized indigenous communities north of the border, with some leaders now pledging to block the bitterly contested Trans Mountain pipeline. With his recent approval of that project, write Shawn McCarthy and Justine Hunter, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s biggest challenge may be yet to come
Melina Laboucan-Massimo, a Lubicon Cree, grew up in Alberta’s oil country. Since the age of 7, she has joined blockades and protests aimed at protecting her community’s traditional lands from resource development. “I was born into it,” she said in an interview. “It’s my inheritance.”
Her parents’ generation was the last to live off the land; their hunting and trapping was disrupted by the thousands of oil and gas wells that have been installed there over her lifetime. In 2011, the community’s worst fears came to life when the Rainbow Pipeline ruptured in their collective back yard, spilling 28,000 barrels of light, sweet crude – the largest oil spill in Alberta in 36 years.
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