This speech took place on the unceded, traditional and ancestral lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) peoples at the University of British Columbia at an event called “Students for Climate Action” on September 7th, 2018. The event was organized by UBCC350, the Social Justice Centre, Vegans of UBC, and Common Energy UBC. Please view the transcript below.
Michelle Marcus: We have a very special guest who is going to talk to you more. This is Cedar George-Parker, he is a member of the sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nation and the George family who have been very, very active in the [Kinder Morgan] pipeline fight in both the legal battle and Protect the Inlet, which is the movement up on Burnaby Mountain. They built a Watch House in one day and have been living there for six months overseeing the work that Kinder Morgan is doing. It’s been a huge pleasure and honour to get to know Cedar over this past summer – to go up to the Watch House to hear him speak, and to learn the teachings of the sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nation. And I’m really grateful for him coming here today and teaching me all he has taught me. I think you all will really enjoy hearing him speak!
Cedar George-Parker: Thank you. Sorry I’m late! I have a plane I have to catch and I was looking for my wallet cause it has my drivers licence in it. I was looking all over the house and I was like “Aww nah, it’s at my grandmas.” Because I was at my grandma’s last night doing some of my ceremonies. That’s why I’m wearing the glasses because sometimes for a couple of days after, it’s not good to have people look right into your eyes after a ceremony. It’s like – your eyes are covered. So that’s why I’m wearing the glasses cause its ceremony and when I look into someone’s eyes, sometimes I can feel it. I can really feel it! I don’t know how to explain it. That’s kinda why I’m wearing the glasses. I found my wallet over there so I had to drive all the way to North Van, across the bridge. So on the way back on the bridge, there was an accident and I was like “Noooo!” And so I was driving across. And it was a bad one. Like a big truck and it broke down or something. So I’m sorry about being late!
Michelle: It’s ok, you’re here now!
Cedar: So anyways, about this fight. Honestly it only started with a few of us. There was only a couple of us who started this fight and it was like I said – I remember my dad was like, “You’re not going to see too much of me.” I was like “Ohhh, ok, why?” “Well cause of this.” And I said “Alright, well, we’re going to do this together.” And so from there, it literally started from a group of people. It literally started from a group of people and that’s all. And like from there, it got bigger and bigger that’s because no matter what – no matter how complicated it sounds or not matter how complicated you’re saying it is – people will always understand the truth. You can always talk about the truth. And so we found out the true facts about Kinder Morgan and we found about the true facts about what oil will do to our inlet, backed up with science, backed up with our cultural laws and our spiritual laws. And so we did that. And why we really do this, is we have to find that cause. “Why are we doing this?” What drives you to stand up for the land in which you live in? What drives you to save practically the world right now? What drives you, you know? What if there is a million people that are going to get sick in 24 hours? What if we could harness all of the sun’s energy for two minutes? What would that look like? We could power everything in the world, every hairdryer, every car, every phone, for a whole year if we harnessed just two minutes of the earth’s sun rays. I got this study, somewhere on my phone… it’s really crazy and that’s the things that we’re looking at. Those are the things that we’re looking at.
We have this renewable energy. We have the solutions. Sometimes I imagine what the aliens are thinking about us. “Look, they can harness energy without hurting anybody, but they’re killing each other, starting wars over oil! What are they doing??” And so that’s why we fight, right? And especially from being from here, we gotta look at the geographical location in which we’re in. And so, when it comes to starting movements and what not, a lot of people just think that it is like “You need your rallies, you need your this and that. Let’s go stop traffic!” You know? I’m one of those people who are in traffic and hate that. [Laughs] Let’s make allies, let’s educate the people because if 1/4th of the people knew what we knew, what would the world look like? We would go away from that gas and oil industry which hurts people. And when you look at the world and where the epicenters are in North America of oil, they also have one thing in common with them. It has another thing that goes with that. A thing that is really, really bad and ugly that hurts people and hurts families, separates families, kills people. And that’s that, when you’re a city and your economy is based on oil, like Fort McMurray or Houston, Texas, these cities tend to have the highest concentration of people with cancer. So there’s proof right there. There is science behind that. And that’s why we’re here to fight. And like I said, that one million people will get hurt. One million people will get hurt or sick within 24 hours of a Kinder Morgan spill in the Lower Mainland. And that will affect even where I was born in Evert, Washington, Seattle area. I live here too… So it’s like, this is why we fight.
One thing about this fight, which is different from other ones, is that we knew to always think big. Always think big when it comes to the political aspects of a movement of stopping anything… When it comes to the education, or even the cultural and geographical locations in which you are in. So we look at the map about where this – I looked at the map and I did my own research and studying about where this is gonna affect people and it’s going to affect the whole Salish Sea. What’s the biggest cities in the area? Seattle, Vancouver, Victoria, Bellingham, Tacoma too, which is part of Seattle. And so I thought, “Ok, because a lot of people in Vancouver are fighting, you know, but what about these other places? What are we gonna do about these other places. How are we going to activate them? How are we going to come together? How are we really going to make us come together?”
And so, what we did is… well first off, I went down to Victoria and tried to meet some people out there and get a coalition going out there. And we made those allies in Victoria and now their ready to get on with whatever we need to happen – which is stand up to Kinder Morgan and fight them. And I went down to Seattle, Washington to bring all the tribal leaders together, political figures, NGOs which are organizations and we brought them together and I started an initiative coalition called “Warrior Up Washington” with all different types of people from Washington standing up to the Kinder Morgan TransMountain Pipeline. And from there I told them, “Look I don’t wanna just do these things where we just do rallies. Let’s think bigger.” And from that, we had a meeting with the Canadian Consulate and they came up and said lies. And I went in late for strategy, right? [Laughs] Cause we knew they would say, “Ohhh, we talked to natives. We consult them. Duduh duduh duduh duduh…” So we walked right in there and I just laid it down, “There is no consent. We say no, this is not fair.” And all the things. “This is going to hurt out people. A million people are going to get sick. There’s 30-40 tankers coming in and out a year. They’re going to up that to over 400!” And we understand by reading policy and what not, that “over” is a greenwashing word. I can say, “I’m 6”4 and I’m over 100 pounds.” So what does “over” really mean when it comes to that many tankers a year. And from that, the effects will really kill…
How many people are in the lower Mainland, in the Vancouver area?
Audience member: 2.5 million.
Cedar: Two and a half million. So that’s almost half of the people you know getting sick or potentially dying. The hospitals in the Vancouver area don’t have the resources to take in that many people into the hospitals.
So you see all these things that are happening and it’s like, “What can we do?” Well, there’s lots of different things that we can do. We can always think bigger. Always group together like-minded people, right? Always bring those people together and see what we can do together. Because the reality is, why we are fighting and why we are doing this, is not for ourselves. We notice that it’s for these younger generations. Like, for example, I always imagine myself… I have an eight year old little brother. He is annoying, but I love him. [Laughs] And so, I pick him up. I love him. He’s the reason why I do all of this. I have some nephews and nieces. I’m a god dad. They’re the love of my life, they’re the reason I try to do good, they’re the reason I fight so much. They’re the reason I write so much when it comes to this fight. And because of the love I have for them… I can’t imagine, when those half a million people get sick, I can’t imagine me holding them running into the hospital and there’s a line up. “Sorry we can’t treat him.” I really can’t imagine that. That’s why we fight.
But to always stay strong and to fight. It’s not just me on this. Everything I say is because I am part of a team. There’s people who help us because we come together and we notice each other’s gifts. We all have these different gifts. Mine might be, being restless [Laughs]; mine might be this and that but there’s also people on the team who are good speakers; who are really smart and intelligent when it comes to writing and editing, lots of people who have that scientific brain who can look up that research about why it’s going to kill the orcas.
So I did a whole the paper on that for Governor Inslee’s Orca task force and I went up to present for how this is going to kill the orca whales and I did so much research on that. But they are going to go in danger and they are going to disappear from this area if this pipeline goes in, if these tankers come in and out. Because just the noise traffic alone without an oil spill will drive the orcas extinct in the Salish Sea and you can already see that Governor Inslee and the Orca Task Force came up with 3 reasons why the orcas are dying already:
Number 1 is because of the food – the chinook [salmon] and that’s because they are dying from pollution too.
Number 2 is pollution.
Number 3 is noise traffic.
So, 400 tankers coming in and out of where they live will really hurt them and kill them. You can already see that the babies are dying. And a big reason why us Indigenous folks, some of us are standing up, is because we have history with the orca whales – œunlhánumucun – they would come into our bay, they would come into our bay. We have a bay right there called Tulalip Bay and our people were starving one year and so we kept on praying and praying, we were hoping we could save ourselves and we could find a way. And so our relative, the orca whale, drove all the salmon into our bay, and we trapped them, hooked them, caught them, and so they saved us.
So now we are going back and telling our older ones, our people, that the younger generations are saying, the older ones are saying, “it’s our turn to save those orca whales now.” Because they are already dying. We did some research and I was talking to the scientist in Washington State – they did a presentation to the Task Force – and they are saying “it’s crazy that we are doing this right now. That we are deciding to help the orca whales right now, helping them right now. We should have done something 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 30 years ago,” he even said. But now we have to do it because they are dying. It’s not like we better help them before they die. We better help them because they are dying. And this tanker project, will make this process that much quicker. And that’s why we fight.That’s why we have to stand up. And especially as young people.
We have to realize that I’m the first generation that can’t eat out of the Burrard Inlet, the Vancouver inlet. My dad, my father did. My grandmother, my great-grandfather, they all ate out of the water. And I’m the first one who can’t. And in 10 years…From when I was young, there was this stream that we used to play in all the time and it would be a hot summer day and we would go in there, we would also make these little boats out of paper, put them in wax and put them down the water. Me and my older cousins would try to body slam in the water and after the ceremony, we would go into the water to cool off. And we would bring the kids down there to cool them off. And it was just right behind my grandmother’s lawn in North Vancouver, and now 10 years later, it’s toxic.
That’s where we’re at right now and that’s why we have to stand up and do something about that. Because if we don’t, what is it going to look like in the next 10 years? How much more toxic is it going to be? Because some days they say that you shouldn’t go swimming in there. So we have to reverse it right now. But it’s already too late. Things are already dying in the water. The orca whales are already dying. The babies are already dying. We should have been on this a long time ago. But most of all why we fight, as Tsleil Waututh young people, the younger generations of Seattle are doing this, is because we don’t want our next generations to have to fight even harder. We are doing this so they don’t need to fight. And it’s crazy what we are fighting for. We are fighting literally not for freedom; we are fighting for existence. That’s what we are doing. Nothing more, nothing less. We are fighting for existence. We are fighting for the existence of our relatives, the orca whales. Some of them have already died. We are fighting for the existence of the salmon. We are fighting for the existence of the Salish Sea. And we are fighting so that we don’t get sick and that half of the people we know in the Lower Mainland don’t get sick. That’s what is going to happen. So that’s why we are out here and that’s why we have to do what we are going to do.
There is a 87% chance that in the next 50 years, when this pipeline is built, that there will be a spill. A major spill. 87% chance. And no matter how safe they say it is, this is the crazy part, I don’t know the percentage, a big percentage of why spills happen is because of plain human error. So they can say it’s that safe, but it all determines on one dumbass messing up, and just pressing a different button [Laughs]. And honestly, every time they load it up, some [oil] will get into the water. Some oil will get into the water, no matter what, even if it is a drop to a couple gallons. A couple barrels to 1000 barrels. It doesn’t matter. Some will always get in. We have to look at where we live and remember, why we are doing this. We have to find that reason. What’s that reason? Maybe it is someone you love. Maybe it is the land you love. We gotta think about the memories we have with the people we love. Think about the young ones. Think about the people here that you love, the land that you love, the salmon, the seafood you love. Because we are here not to fight but we’re here to stand up. We stand up with whatever we can and that’s standing up in the political aspects, we will work with the mayors of Vancouver, mayors of Seattle or whatnot, the governor of Washington State.
Or even Horgan up here, right? Because we need those political figures to back us up and as young people, those political people will get scared when you go up and meet them. And say, you know, we aren’t going to vote for you. We really have to look at what’s happening next and that’s that we’re actually the biggest transition in the world when it comes to money and wealth because we’re going to get pushed all this money onto us and so that’s why I’m hopeful. That’s why there’s hope.
It’s because climate justice is a trend now, renewable energy is a trend now and it’s our duty to make that trend even bigger because the wealth that is going to be inherited into us is the biggest in history and that’s what gives me hope and that’s why we are going to do this. When we look at renewable energy, and even when it comes down to the fact that even though there are clouds here, we can still put up solar panels because UV lights will come in and charge them up through the clouds. Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean that you can’t charge it. These are all the things we can do. There is so much hope, there are so many solutions. There are so many things that we can do.
One thing is to also have consistent push on politicians, especially as students, especially as young people, to make sure that we have a renewable, good, safe future. Because really what it is, is safety. We are fighting for our safety and we are standing up for our safety; safety not only for us but the ecosystem which we live in. Because if a spill did happen, this is a ‘salmon-opolous’, this is what I heard from some of our experts. A salmon-opolous : an ecosystem based off of salmon. So when a spill happens, it’s like we don’t even know what it will look like when all the salmon die because everything really goes into the water and needs the salmon, so that’s why I’m here to make allies with you guys, to work with you guys, even help you with whatever you guys need. Forrest is here too, with his mom Sapoora. I work with his family a lot. One thing she taught me is that being young, we can’t ask for these things. When it comes to politicians, we’ll say “hey, can you at least stand up on this, or what are you going to do about this, we need you to do something”. Or they get scared because we are the young vote. And especially because of how young we are and how many of us there are, we can really change things when it comes to voting, when it comes to standing up to Trudeau, when it comes to standing up to all of these people, we can really make that imprint on them, to make sure that they make the right decisions. And all it really does is just asking.
I’ll go into a meeting and I’ll say “let’s put up a meeting with so-and-so” and they are just like, “What? I don’t know if we can do that”….It’s just asking! That’s how easy it is to ask for that support, ask for that help. So that’s why we do what we do. We have to. So that our family don’t get sick, so that our friends don’t get sick. Our orca whales, maybe we can save them. They are dying right now. There hasn’t been a healthy baby in years. It’s about the orca whales, right? And that’s also another campaign strategy we want to get on, that I am trying to get on, whoever wants to support too, save the orcas! We really have to. That’s who we are here. That’s what it is here.
I just want to say thank you, thank you for listening. My mind was kind of all over the place, so if it wasn’t as smooth as I usually talk, sorry. In a few hours, I gotta get on a plane to San Francisco, there’s going to be 160 world leaders there. I’m going to go out there and present our 1,200 page assessment document of the Kinder Morgan Transmountain Pipeline, based off of our spiritual laws backed up with science. That’s what I mean by looking into it bigger. This assessment is really why we won the court cases. The assessment and how [the pipeline] is going to harm the orca whales, harm the environment, harm the economy, and how it’s going to harm most of all the people and the land which we live in right now. And based off of this, we’re making more studies right now in Tsleil Waututh Nation, right now we’re having an air study, we are seeing air pollution, we’re seeing how bad it is and we are going to study it.
Based off of these, it backs us up as to why we are fighting. Because sometimes saying you just want safety and health isn’t enough for these politicians who are getting paid by these oil executives, by these oil companies. They have millions and billions of dollars for lobbyists, and same with the NEB [National Energy Board] system. Someone who was working with Kinder Morgan was hired to be on the NEB. And that’s what’s crazy! That’s what’s nuts!
If we step on these platforms, these platforms will push us forward, to make our dreams become possible. And we just gotta think it, believe it, and then receive it. And when we think it, believe it and receive it, that’s when it’s strong. That’s when our dreams come true. And we step on those platforms and take those values with us, when we’re strong politically, educationally and culturally.
Politically, reaching out to these people, making sure that we win the moral fight.
Educationally, know what you are saying and back it up.
Culturally, having that backbone behind you so that when you fall, you have something to pick you up.
With all these 3 things, we can move forward. And especially as young people, we can make the biggest difference. I have hope because we’re the generation with the biggest wealth going to be inherited to us and if we keep on with that trend of climate change, climate justice, renewable energy, our future will look really really great and hopefully none of the orca whales will die. You know what, it’s too late. They are dying right now. It’s up to us to take action right now. Yesterday, we should have done this. Ten years ago, we should have done this. Thirty years, we should have done this. Now it’s too late. So we have to do this right now today. If you’re busy today, do it tomorrow [laughs].
That’s why we have to get on board. Make sure we have those things to back us up for when we say, when we make these quotes..For example, when I go up and speak, I’ll say these things and people will be like “where did you get that from?” and I’ll have all the backup I need from my people, from the team, world-renowned scientists. Especially, we are in a school here right now [UBC].
I don’t really know what I just said there. I’m kinda just thinking about travelling right now…
What I’m trying to say is:
Reach out.
Don’t be afraid to reach out.
Ask for that help.
Find like-minded people and sit down and talk.
What I did with Michelle, what I did with Jacqueline, us 3 did those things and we wrote together that thing to send to the Prime Minister’s Youth Cabinet, we wrote up that thing to send to the AFN Youth Council, to their chiefs, we did these things. We came together. And it’s our like mindedness that helped us to do these things.
To all of y’all that came to that training, me, Michelle and Jacqueline put it on, because as young people, we wanted to put on a training here, because when it comes up to political aspects, educational aspects and cultural aspects, what we did at the Watchhouse is we had our Indigenous leaders, our campaign leaders, people who do campaigning, people who do direct action, people who know the facts, some lawyers and what not, give you weapons to arm yourself with education.
These are the things we can do together. These are the things that can be accomplished because this fight literally started with 3 people and now it’s touching the world. I did some organizing all the way out in Paris for this. I did some in Switzerland. We went to Thailand, Panama, Peru. People are supporting all over the United States – New York City, United Nations, Denver, all over Texas, California, Washington State. People are supporting. These are the places I’ve just been, and a lot of people on the team have been around and saw these things, see these things of hope. They saw that Kinder Morgan and this pipeline will really make us sick and kill our people and from that, they decided that we need to stand up, we have to stand up.
Because if we don’t, what does that mean for the next generation?
What does that mean for the next 10 years in this inlet?
What does it mean when I am already the first generation that can’t eat out of it?
There’s already some years, some days, when you can’t even swim in it.
What does it mean for the next generation?
What does it mean when we are our grandfathers’, our grandparents’ age?
What is it going to look like if we don’t fight today?
If I decided to not fight today, what would it look like for my little brother?
What would it look like for my nieces and nephews?
What would it look like for the land?
What would it look like for the baby orca whales who are breathing in that pollution, who can’t find food because of the tankers coming in?
What does it mean? Think about that.
That is what I think about every day.
Already, there’s droughts. We had some meetings in California and found out that the winery companies down in California are buying property up in BC and Washington State because the world is getting hotter and there are droughts everywhere.
People are going to come here and there is going to be a lot more people moving up here. Because of that. And when that happens, we need to make sure that they know we are up here doing climate justice and sticking up for the land and for the people.
So, I just want to say that I work with Michelle and we are talking about doing campaigns with university students all across Canada – we have our friends out in Montreal, Toronto, Halifax, Saskatchewan, Alberta. Let’s get on that. Let’s see what we can do. Us as young people can demand that these politicians, we make them the most afraid on the decisions that they make and that’s how it is supposed to be. We are going to inherit every decision that they make. And the decision they are making right now is to put in this pipeline, and that’s not safe for us! It’s not good for us! It’s going to make people sick! It’s going to harm people!
And that’s not right. And we gotta stand up to that.
We have to use whatever we can and whatever gift we have. If we don’t have that gift, find somebody. [Laughs].
Thank you. There’s a lot of things we can do. Let’s strategize. I’ll do whatever I can to help you guys. Let’s do this together. We are the young people. We are going to win!
Special thanks to transcribers Scott Martens and Margaret-Anne Murphy.
