Andrew Nikiforuk  https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/08/13/Quakes-Fracking-Site-C-Dam-Region/

Several recent reports on the tremors add to concerns about the mega-project’s stability.

Building the Site C dam in northeastern British Columbia is proving more difficult than officials predicted due to unstable ground on the northern bank. Adding to concerns: myriad earthquakes.

For nearly a decade, The Tyee has reported on a rising number of earthquakes caused by the hydraulic fracturing of shale formations in the region. Now, new studies put the number of such tremors in recent years in the many thousands, raising more worries about the future of the mega-project.

Researchers warn the shaking could become strong enough to crumble critical infrastructure such as roads, high-rise buildings — and dams. 

B.C.’s regulatory practices try to limit fracking after small earthquakes have been triggered. But that’s “not sufficient to protect critical or vulnerable infrastructure that have unacceptable failure consequences,” noted seismic hazard expert Gail Atkinson in the May 7 issue of Nature Reviews. 

No one can yet predict frack-triggered quakes before they happen, and “hazard forecasting” remains a “critical area of research.”

Another study, released this week by researcher Ben Parfitt at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, took data from federal earthquake catalogues to show how many tremors the fracking industry is producing near the Site C dam.

The numbers are staggering. Between 2017 and 2018 alone, the industry triggered 6,551 earthquakes greater than 0.8 magnitude in the region near the troubled mega-project with a price estimate of $12 billion and rising.

The cases span all B.C. health regions: Vancouver Coastal (330), Fraser Health (194), Island Health (44), Interior Health (41) and Northern Health (8).

• 13 people have died, 59 are in hospital (23 of which are in intensive care), and 173 have recovered.

• Of the 13 deaths, 10 have been linked to the outbreak at North Vancouver’s Lynn Valley Care Centre, one to Vancouver’s Haro Park Centre and two are residents in the Fraser Health region.

Reported from Vanncouver Sun

Wet’suwet’e

post by Shiri Pasternak 2020-02-07

In Treaties, Rights and Title

AN UNSIGNED AGREEMENT

between a Wet’suwet’en First Nation and Coastal GasLink along with financial documents obtained by Yellowhead Institute provide reinforcement to Yellowhead’s assessment of the ways these private contracts can dramatically undermine First Nation rights and jurisdiction.

The Impact and Benefit Agreement (IBA) and other documents were drafted in 2016, two years before the first payments were made to the First Nation. Because official agreements are not available to the public due to confidentiality clauses, these documents provide a valuable record of Coastal GasLink’s negotiating objectives.

The Court erred in granting an injunction 

1.    AN INJUNCTION IS AN EQUITABLE REMEDY

AN INJUNCTION IS AN EQUITABLE REMEDY. THE EXERCISE OF THE EQUITABLE JURISDICTION IS NOT TO BE RESTRICTED BY THE STRAITJACKET OF RIGID RULES BUT IS TO BE BASED ON BROAD PRINCIPLES OF JUSTICE AND CONVENIENCE, EQUITY REGARDING THE SUBSTANCE AND NOT MERELY THE FACADE OR THE SHADOW. IT MOVES WITH TIME AND CIRCUMSTANCES. (1991 BC JUSTICE J.A. NORRIS)

A. TIME AND CIRCUMSTANCES HAVE CHANGED SINCE 1991 AFTER UN CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENT AND THE DEVELOPMENT (UNCED)

(i) in 1992, Canada signed and in 1993, ratified  the legally binding UN Framework Convention on Climate Change 

whose objective is 

article 2, the ultimate objective the UNFCCC convention and any related legal instruments that the conference of the parties may adopt is to achieve stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system;