Arno Kopecky and Ilja Herb spent three months this past summer sailing the North Central coast of British Columbia – not as your average explorers – but in hopes to make a difference.
“There’s this huge issue in our backyard we now have a chance to go and look at things ourselves instead of just listening to this bombastic emotional rhetoric from both sides,” says Arno.
The coastline is the destination for the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline. The proposal has been heavily criticized by First Nation’s communities, as the pipeline would cross through much of their traditional lands.
“We’re trying to interpret and hear stories of people who live here, who have lived here for a long, long time,” says Ilja.
Their project is called “Oil Man and the Sea”, meeting the people and communities affected by the pipeline – the people who call this land home.
Arno, a writer, and Ilja, a photographer, will publish their findings in a feature for Reader’s Digest January issue.
“We have not heard one person who likes the pipeline…this has become a journey of trying to find someone who likes it,” says Ilja.
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If the proposed pipeline is passed, it will carry oil from Alberta to British Columbia where it will be picked up by oil tankers and then shipped overseas.
Some say the pipeline is an economic necessity, carrying one of Canada’s most important resources to a hungry overseas market. Others argue that the risks are too great.
“What’s really kind of struck a chord with me as well is… it’s actually people that are at risk here,” says Arno. “These are tankers that carry 2 million barrels of oil if one of those spills it is going to wipe out many, many ways of life because the people here are kind of indistinguishable from the fish that they depend on…. Which is something I think is very hard for people to grasp when you live almost anywhere else in Canada myself included.”
The pipeline is an issue that divides provinces, politicians and communities. But Argo and Ilja hope that it’s the personal stories they share that will make the difference.
“Every nook and cranny of this land has a story to go with,” Arno says.
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