Last week at ArtSpring with the small community of Salt Spring Island, folks raised over $5K to support the three Nations that are trying to stop the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project (TMX).
This past week was historic for Pull Together. We raised $70,000 in just 10 days for Indigenous legal challenges to stop the pipeline expansion project, bringing our total to $213,000 since we launched in August 2019.
How? From events like the one on Salt Spring, and in community halls, pubs and on campuses all across the country, where countless people are realizing that it is up to us to step up and stand in true allyship with Coldwater, Tsleil Waututh and Squamish Nations. The momentum to stop this pipeline and tankers project is coming from the grassroots up, and it is spreading like wildflowers.
Communities are pulling out all the stops: Seattle just held a pancake breakfast that raised $15K. In Vancouver, the Commercial Drag Family are the latest event-holders who have contributed $5K and counting via their online “Queers for Climate Justice” fundraiser. In Toronto tickets are selling fast for a dance party/town hall. Folks in Portland and Ottawa are pulling, and Victoria’s Turning the Tide coalition is planning a People’s Paddle on December 14.
The incredible band, Funeral Lakes, is donating 100% of proceeds from their album downloads for Pull Together! Everyone who donates to their fundraising page will receive a download code for the album as a token of appreciation. Once your donation is received, your unique code will be delivered via email which you can use to download their album!
The question on many people’s minds is, can we win? Well: Pull Together, the initiative sparked by RAVEN and Sierra Club BC, started in 2014 when the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and tankers project seemed a near certainty. Thanks to a coalition of fierce and committed Nations, backed by thousands of people who fundraised, donated and organized events, that pipeline was permanently shut down. Fast forward four years and another court challenge halted Trans Mountain.
We know during this time of climate crisis that there is no place for the Trans Mountain pipeline. Our planet, our grandchildren, our common future, require that we act now. But: we are gathering on Salt Spring — and in communities all across the land — to build things, not destroy them. We’re here to commit to supporting Indigenous leadership of the land we live on, to foster community as neighbours and activists, and to build a strong foundation for First Nations so that when they enter the courthouse in Vancouver on December 16, they’ll be able to defend their rights with the strongest legal case imaginable.
We need to urgently delay the construction of new pipeline infrastructure that will lock us into a cycle of fossil fuel extraction and marine shipping for decades. Our job is simple and our goal — with staunch supporters like you — achievable. We need to raise another $200,000 to fund legal challenges by Squamish, Tsleil Waututh and Coldwater Nations.
