Upcoming & Recent Events
Community Town Hall: Burnaby Mountain Fire Preparedness
Start: Monday, March 17, 2025• 5:30 PM
End: Monday, March 17, 2025• 8:30 PM
Location:SFU Student Union Building - Ballroom (5th Floor)•8888 University Drive W, Burnaby, BC V5A1S6 CA
Host Contact Info: 350sfu@gmail.com
Last year the highest average global temperature was recorded, two days in a row. The Lower Mainland is experiencing hotter summers, with low rainfall. Increased temperatures and droughts heighten extreme fire risks. Climate change factors endanger residents, students, teachers, workers, and visitors in the area as well as threatening the lives of animals and trees within these ecosystems.
Burnaby Mountain with its storage of fossil fuels and its pipeline. Many people live in residences, attend school, or work in the vicinity. There are two elementary schools and the SFU Campus, as well as institutions and businesses locally located in this high risk zone deserve a robust emergency preparedness plan to protect and save lives. We know that adjacent communities face threats due to the dynamics of high winds on fires, as we witness in California, with the potential to spread to other local mountains and adjacent communities. Additionally, there are the impacts on soil stability, air quality, and water contamination in the wake of such disasters.
Join us for a community-led town hall to discuss the urgent safety and environmental risks posed by the Trans Mountain Tank Farm and Pipeline System. We invite respectful and open dialogues between community members, Host Nation leaders, members of our municipal, provincial and federal governments, Trans Mountain Corporation, and safety officials.
Bring your questions. Get answers.
This Community Town Hall includes a light meal. Please RSVP via bit.ly/BurnabyTownHall
Location: SFU Student Union Building - Ballroom (5th Floor), 8888 University Drive W, Burnaby
OPEN LETTER TO MAYOR MIKE HURLEY
February 24, 2025
Dear Mayor Hurley,
We are a collective of concerned residents, students and youth, elders, health professionals, businesses and community organizers. Many of us live, study and work on Burnaby Mountain where the Trans Mountain Burnaby tank terminal is located. Many of us have been trying to share concerns and find clarity on how to prepare for a tank fire, wildfire, pipeline rupture, gas leak, or combination of these disasters. As the ones to bear direct costs of a tank fire and accompanying hazards such as smoke and toxic gases, and conflagration of homes and forests, we urgently need a public process built on meaningful and ongoing consultation, transparency, accountability, and community care.
Therefore, we invite you to the Community Town Hall at SFU Student Union Building (Ballroom), 8888 University Dr W, Burnaby, on Monday, March 17 from 5:30 – 8:30 pm. This process provides a safe space for all to share safety concerns and attend to emergency preparedness related to the Trans Mountain tank farm and pipelines. We invite respectful and open dialogues between community members, Host Nation leaders, members of our municipal, provincial and federal governments, Trans Mountain Corporation, and safety officials.
We understand that the City of Burnaby is planning for a full-scale emergency exercise in 2027, and that the City is expanding its emergency response capacities, including building two new fire stations and establishing a public alert system. We also understand that the City is working with multiple agencies and organizations on emergency preparedness. However, our efforts to consult with the City so far have been met with silence. We are living through a climate emergency and we have witnessed ongoing and devastating loss from wildfires, heat domes and floods. Our community members have varying forms and degrees of vulnerabilities not limited to age, ability, health conditions, stable housing and other economic conditions. All of our concerns regarding fire safety and emergency preparedness and evacuations must be considered and attended to. Furthermore, we are extremely concerned about the "Community Contribution Agreement" signed between Trans Mountain Corporation and the City of Burnaby on September 27th, 2024, and the manner in which it was done without any community consultation. We believe a public process built on meaningful and ongoing consultation, transparency, accountability, and community care is urgently needed.
In the spirit of mutual respect and collaboration, we look forward to your participation as a Burnaby resident as well as a policy maker and elected member of the City of Burnaby. Burnaby Code of Conduct Bylaw 2023 No. 14557, 3.2 Standards of Conduct (v) states: "Council members will listen to and consider the opinions and needs of the members community on all decision-making and allow public discourse and feedback."
We hope that this Community Town Hall serves as a beginning for future town hall processes leading up to and including the full-scale exercise.
Please respond to this invitation at 350sfu@gmail.com by 11:59PM PST on Wednesday, March 5th.
Sincerely,
SFU350
Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS)
Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion (BROKE)
Kwekwecnewtxw
Canadian Association of Nurses for the Environment (CANE)
Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE)
Protect the Planet
Mountain Protectors
West Coast Climate Action Network (WE-CAN)
Protect the Planet Community Meeting Oct. 21, 2024: THE FUTURE DIRECTION
Protect the Planet is holding a community meeting on zoom OCTOBER 21, 7PM. The agenda is simple: 1) quick summary of past year's work, 2) reflections, 3) options for path forward in the fight to protect the planet from fossil fuel proliferation. PLEASE LEND YOUR VOICE TO THE DISCUSSION!
REMINDER: PtP COMMUNITY ONLINE MEETING MONDAY OCT. 21, 7pm OCTOBER 21, 7PM. Christine Thuring will facilitate. The agenda is simple: 1) quick summary of past year's work, 2) reflections, 3) options for path forward for PtP. PLEASE LEND YOUR VOICE TO THE DISCUSSION!
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VANCOUVER Welcomes the Golden Rule Peace Ship
Sunday, August 25, 2024, dock at Whey-ah-Wichen aka Cates Park, 10:30 a.m.
This event is an expression of love for the Inlet and a desire to protect her in the face of increasing threats. Please join other water protectors on the waters of səlilwətaʔɬ aka Burrard Inlet, Sunday August 25. We will be gathering and preparing boats at 10am. Local canoers and kayakers will be joined by the intrepid sailing ship, The Golden Rule. The Golden Rule sailed with a Quaker crew to the Marshall Islands to protest U.S. nuclear testing in 1958. Rejuvenated by Veterans for Peace in 2010, the ship has spreading the words of peace, nuclear disarmament and care for Mother Earth ever since.
A press conference will be held on the dock at Whey-ah-Wichen aka Cates Park at 10:30am. Speakers will remind us that the Coast Salish nations took care of the land and waters that nurtured them, but things have changed. Today and nearly every day a tanker filled with 500,000 barrels of oil transits through the səlilwətaʔɬ 's two narrows, endangering our beloved seas and bringing more toxic emissions to our common atmosphere at a time we know these emissions must be rapidly reduced. We hope more people will heed our message of peace, love for the Inlet and love for Mother Earth.
Wildfire Resilience and Climate Action on Burnaby Mountain: a workshop
Sept. 18, 2024, SFU Burnaby Campus, 8:30 am - 1:30 pm
Put on by the Planetary Health Research group at SFU, this is a workshop with panel presentations and collaborative dialogues on the topics of wildfire resilience and climate action on Burnaby mountain. Keynote by John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather,
Archive of PAST EVENTS (below)-----------------
Protect the Planet Community Meeting
Monday September 25, 2023, 7-8:30pm, zoom
Join Protect the Planet and Indigenous Land Defender Jim Leyden at the September Community Meeting. Jim will share insights as the watchhouse elder and the story of of his court case (Prosecution Services dropped the charge of injunction violation while performing ceremony-yeah!). Plus meet fellow land and water protectors, build camaraderie and plan next steps. Please RSVP.
Global Climate Strike
Friday September 15, 1pm, Vancouver City Hall, !:30pm March, 3pm Vancouver Art Gallery
Join the local community and people around the world who will take to the streets to demand a rapid, just and equitable end to fossil fuels. The march starts at Vancouver City Hall at 11am and will end with a party at the Vancouver Art Gallery. For more details.
It Stops Here with Rueben George & Guests
Wednesday August 30, 7pm
At 7pm, join Massy Arts Society, Massy Books, SFU Library, and SFU Public Square for a special evening with prominent environmental activist, spiritual leader, and Sundance Chief, Rueben George, for the launch of his book, It Stops Here: Standing up for Our Lands, Our Waters, and Our People. RSVP for the free event.
Free Skool Field Trip
Saturday August 26 , 12-7pm, Forest Grove Park Soccer, Burnaby
The Burnaby Mountain Pipeline Resistance and Land-based Learning happens at the Forest Grove Park Soccer Field from 12-7pm. Free Skool Field Trip brings together grassroots people to celebrate, learn, resist and grow together. For more details.
Protect the Planet Camping Action
Monday August 7, 10am, North Road at Pipeline Crossing, Coquitlam
Protect the Planet is starting a series of camping actions to Stop TMX. Activists will set up for 2-3 days at a time at various locations with active construction. The first campsite will be at North Road at the pipeline crossing, near Holmes Creek, set up at 10am. Register to camp.
Hug The Mountain
Sunday, June 18, 12-4:00pm, Forest Grove Park soccer field, Burnaby
Stand in unity against the Transmountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) at Hug Burnaby Mountain!
The event, hosted on unceded terrirories of xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) ,Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and kwikwəƛ̓ əm (Kwikwetlem), will feature music, dance, ceremony, booths, and a parade to show our fierce love for our planet. In the face of the climate crisis, we will keep persisting, one Hug at a time. It's not too late to change things for the better!
Privacy Requests Workshop
Monday May 29, 7:00pm, Zoom
"Do you want to know what TMX/RCMP are documenting about you?" Join us at our Protect the Planet Community Meeting at 7pm on Monday May 29 for an informative and empowering evening with Pipe Up's Lynn Perrin. She will share information on how to submit privacy requests from the Transmountain Pipeline corporation and RCMP. Come prepared with what you want to find out then we will submit the requests together!
Protect the Planet Community Meeting
Monday April 24, 7:00pm, Zoom
We would like to invite you to the Protect the Planet Community Meeting on Monday April 24 at 7pm. During the 90 minute online meet up, they will introduce us to those working to stop the TransMountain Pipeline Expansion, offer ways we can take action, and give us an opportunity to connect with other people that are committed to protecting the planet.
Coextinction Film Viewing
Wednesday April 19, 7:00pm, SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts ( 149 West Hastings Street, Vancouver)
Join Reel Causes, Protect the Planet and Ecojustice for a screening
of Coextinction. After the mother orca Tahlequah carries her dead calf for 17
days, Indigenous leaders and scientists make a desperate attempt to save the
last 73 Southern Resident orcas from extinction. Coextinction takes audiences
deep into the interconnected web of ecosystem collapse on the frontlines of the
Pacific Northwest's most pressing environmental threats. Fish farms, pipelines,
dams, increasing vessel traffic, climate change, pollutants and centuries of
injustice against Indigenous peoples are all connected. No species goes extinct
in isolation.
Unveiling of George Rammel's Chamber of Predetermined Outcomes
Mar . 21. 7-9pm Longhouse Church 2545 Franklin St. Vancouver
Join us for an unveiling of George Rammell's sculptural work "Chambers of Predetermined Outcomes: Gatekeepers of Justice" by Rueben George of the Tsleil-Waututh nation. The unveiling is followed by a discussion with the artist and introductory statements by panelists Rueben George, Alex Phillips, and Michelle Silongan on the TMX struggle, political art, and injunction culture. Rammell's sculpture has been funded through the British Columbia Arts Council.
Youtube live stream: https://youtube.com/live/JZFpMZKARHI?feature=share
What Can We Do When Laws Harm Public Health?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fam8PBNzeRE Click here to view the event recording.
Mar. 14, 10:30-12pm, Public Health Association of BC, - online
Dr. Tim Takaro's career has focused on environmental and occupational health and, in recent years, on the health impacts of climate change. This led him, as a citizen, to become a volunteer with Protect the Planet Stop TMX (the Trans-Mountain Pipeline Expansion) since August 2020. In November 2021 he was arrested for tree-sitting in an attempt to block further construction of TMX and in June 2022 he was sentenced for contempt of Court and jailed for three weeks.
In this online webinar he will share some of his experience and deep consideration of the ethics of climate change and health action, including exploring an ethics framework for climate action in public health and examine the Declarations of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act as a foundation for potential planetary health action on climate change.
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/what-can-we-do-when-laws-harm-public-health-tickets-558992440437
FreeSkool
Saturday January 28, 11am-6pm, Kiwassa Neighbourhood House (2425 Oxford St.)
A free festival of workshops for activists both new and old. Sessions will include Non-violent Direct Action, the Seven Grandfather Teachings, Land Defender First Aid Training, Zine-Making, Public Speaking 101, and more.