Two environmental organizations have joined forces to screen films in Abbotsford that question what impact pipeline projects may have on the West Coast.
Local activist group Pipe Up Network and provincial environmental research non-profit Raincoast Conservation Foundation will be screening two films Saturday night at the Abbotsford campus of the University of the Fraser Valley.
"The two films show how communities in Northern B.C. and visitors to those regions have reacted to Enbridge's Northern Gateway Pipeline proposal to carry tar sands bitumen to the Northern Coast," said Pipe Up member Michael Hale by email.
The first, a 22-minute short film called Reflections: Art for an Oil Free Coast, follows fifty of B.C. best known artists – including Robert Bateman – on a journey up the dense rainforest coast.
The second, a short film called Groundswell, documents surfers heading up the coast to track what they fear would be lost with the approval of an oil pipeline through the region.
Both films are produced by Raincoast Conservation Foundation.
A panel discussion will follow the screenings. As Hale, one of the panelists, explains:
"The panel discussion and question and answer session will focus on Kinder Morgan's proposal to bring tar sands crude through another pristine region of BC—the Fraser River Watershed and thence through the most populated areas of southwestern BC. The presentations will look at potential risks, economic effects and alternatives to tar sands products."
The event takes place Nov. 2, 2013, at 7–9:30 p.m, at UFV Theatre B101, Abbotsford Campus.
Advance booking is available online at oilfreecoastufv.eventbrite.com. Admission is by donation, with a suggested amount of $5.