And in British Columbia, Canada, thousands of people marched in the city of Burnaby on Saturday to protest the expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline. First Nations and environmental activists say the project will expand highly polluting development in Alberta’s tar sands region, while endangering communities around an expanded export terminal near Vancouver. This is Eriel Deranger, executive director of the group Indigenous Climate Action.

Eriel Deranger: “In Alberta, we have seen tar sands ravage and rip apart the landscapes in the Treaty 8 territory for over 60 years. We have seen it contaminate our river systems, destroy our food sources and really weaken the spirit of our people. This march represents that resurgence, breathing life into the spirit of our people to know that we are not alone, that while we challenge the Kinder Morgan pipeline, we are challenging to respect and uphold the rights of indigenous peoples, that have the right to say no, that have the right to decide what happens in our backyards and in our territories. We have the right to health; clean, safe environments.”