Tsleil-Waututh Nation

Texas-based Kinder Morgan has scored another legal victory after the Federal Court of Appeal rejected a request to consider new evidence that allegedly showed the Trudeau government rigged its review of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

The documents are the latest files to emerge in a legal review surrounding the unfolding Trans Mountain pipeline expansion saga, as a critical deadline approaches. The Texas-based company behind the project, Kinder Morgan, has said it will walk away from the pipeline if it fails to find a way — before May 31 — to resolve the financial risks it is facing due to fierce opposition in B.C.

“The facts and circumstances which have given rise to this motion are highly unusual and, indeed, extremely alarming,” said the motion, submitted on May 2 to the Federal Court of Appeal by lawyers for the Tsleil-Waututh Nation.

The Tsleil-Waututh Nation "is of the view that the new evidence, viewed in the larger context of the existing evidence which is already before the Court, casts further unfavorable light on Canada's approach to 'consultation' with TWN," wrote lawyer Scott Smitt in a letter sent to the Federal Court of Appeal on April 29, 2018.

If the case launched by First Nations is reopened or appealed, here is a sample of some of the relevant evidence released through access to information legislation and other public information gathered by National Observer over the past two years.

“I guess that's something that wouldn't have fazed me at all if the Harper government was still in power,” the public servant told National Observer. “But given the change in government, seeing as how we were told to provide serious advice, I was rather shocked at being given that kind of direction. It's not something that I would have expected from a Liberal government.”

Canada's decision to approve an expansion for the Trans Mountain pipeline was a "one-way street" that ignored the economic and title rights of Indigenous people, a lawyer said on Monday.

Trudeau approves Kinder Morgan's Trans-Mountain Pipeline. We hear from the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation, and debate the question everyone is asking: will it be built?

At the very least, the Tsleil-Waututh say the challenge will delay project implementation, escalate construction costs, and increase the legal fees for Kinder Morgan shareholders.

The era of colonization is over, said Tsleil-Waututh representatives. Canada or indeed, the National Energy Board, can no longer plough through their land without permission.

A new report on the Salish Sea region, where Kinder Morgan plans to ship diluted bitumen, says the area is too valuable to be at risk of a major oil spill

"You do not have the consent of Indigenous people to work on unceded Indigenous territory," said a protester, caught on camera, through a megaphone to first responders.