The B.C. government has appointed a former NDP MP to be a mediator to try and get a LNG pipeline built – the same man who repeatedly mocked other governments over pipelines..Former New Democrat MP Nathan Cullen was named Monday as a provincial liaison with Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs in efforts to end a stalemate in getting the Coastal GasLink project built through their lands..But on several occasions, the former Skeena MP has shown what side of the debate he is on..“Hey, you ever buy a used car when you turn it on it sounds really strange? But the seller cranks up the radio real quick and says, ‘don’t worry about it.’ But that’s what the Liberals just did, maybe buying the biggest lemon in Canadian history. So what kind of climate leader goes out and buys a 65-year-old leaky pipeline anyway?” he said in the House of Commons in June of 2018 when the Trudeau government bought the TMX for $4.5 billion..Cullen also expressed support when the province of B.C. moved to block the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline..“Based on all the scientific evidence, all the testimony they heard from people in the north, I don’t think B.C .had any other option,” Cullen said..Cullen represented the area where the pipeline is to be built through until not seeking reelection last October..B.C. Premier John Horgan says he hopes Cullen is able to diffuse tensions between the hereditary chiefs and Coastal GasLink..The pipeline has the support of all First Nations along the route, but hereditary chiefs of Wet’suwet’en Nation, through which 28% of the 670-km route passes, oppose it..A group of unelected hereditary chiefs has set up a camp near Smithers and have kicked out Coastal GasLink workers..The RCMP said they have found traps like felled trees and three stacks of tires along with flammables along the access road..On Jan. 7, 2019, RCMP arrested 14 protesters along the B.C. logging road. .International attention was drawn to the issue when a British newspaper reported RCMP were ready to shoot protesters when they broke up the camp. The RCMP denied the story..On Dec. 31, the B.C. Supreme Court granted CGL an injunction against members of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation from blocking the pipeline route near Smithers, B.C..But the situation has been further complicated after an Jan. 3 indict by the Unist’ot’en, a smaller group within the First Nation, that they intend to terminate an agreement that had granted the company access to the land..The RCMP checkpoint had been set up at the 27-km mark of the forest service road “to mitigate safety concerns related to the hazardous items of fallen trees and tire piles with incendiary fluids along the roadway.”.The $6.6 billion pipeline, to be operated by TC Energy Corp, would transport gas from near Dawson Creek in northeast B.C. to Kitimat on the coast and supply Canada’s largest liquefied natural gas export terminal, called LNG Canada, which is under construction..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com.Twitter: @Nobby7694
