Burnaby Chevron Fracking Protest: It’s all over with for now, Power to the people

It’s all over with for now. At approximately 10:30pm the three protesters who were chained to the Chevron station gate, Dan Wallace, Mia Nissen and Adam Gold were arrested. The police cordoned off the growing crowd, draped the protestors with protective blankets, then sawed off the bike locks while sparks shot into the air. To the chants of “if you ship it – we will stop it, if you build it, we will block it”, the crowd cheered as the arrested finished their day’s work, and were led into police vehicles. This observer will remember the silent resolve the three maintained throughout the day until the final moments, the seriousness of the intension behind their motives, the humour that provided relief as the day wore on.

The optics of the situation made the power relations in our present society transparent. The beautiful but increasingly threatened Vancouver/Burnaby landscape was the backdrop; the bright blue sky hid the invisible knowledge that greenhouse gases are building and leading to catastrophic changes in weather systems. In our midst, the gated fossil fuel corporation stands seemingly invulnerable to attempts to respond to threats to the very existence of humanity. The state, in the form of police and the judge’s injunction, come to defend corporate interests. Business-as-usual and the corporation’s proft imperative in the form of a steady train of fossil fuel delivery is to be protected above all else.

On the side of humanity and nature are the good people being arrested, those in the audience, and all the allies expressing support throughout the day. Risking their daily routine, their reputation with coworkers or aquaintances, or possible financial penalty, they soldier on throughout the day in the shared understanding that this is a time of clarity, of vitality, of being awake to ourselves as people and as community. We will remember the words of one of the arrestees. “We can do this. We are doing this now”.

Good night, comrades. Thanks for following this story. Until tomorrow…