Award Winning UBC Prof Blocks Freeway Construction: Gateway Work Shut Down for Four Hours

CBC, December 8, 2009, VANCOUVER, BC – On Monday December 7th UBC Professor Patrick Condon joined a group of climate activists who occupied a freeway construction site in Vancouver. Work was stopped at the site for four
hours. The protest coincided with the first day of climate change talks in Copenhagen, where Canada
received yet another Fossil of the Day Award. The notorious award goes to the country doing the most
to obstruct progress at UN climate negotiations.

This action was directed at the controversial Gateway Program, a massive freeway-expansion project
that would increase greenhouse gases (GHGs) in a sector that is already the largest source of
emissions in our region. The province's own assessment estimates the increase at over 160,000 tonnes
per year. If the billions being spent on Gateway were re-directed to an emissions reduction program
including cost-effective public transit, emissions could be reduced by millions of tonnes per year.

The Gateway Program is linked to a larger Pacific Gateway strategy that includes pipelines to the
Alberta Tar Sands, Canada's largest point source of greenhouse gas emissions. Cars and trucks in BC
already burn fuel made from tar sands bitumen, and the proportion of this dirty tar sands fuel in our
gas tanks is increasing.

“As a citizen it enrages me to see Canada drag its feet on climate change through support of the
world’s dirtiest fuel: tar sands,” said Patrick Condon. “As a resident it breaks my heart to see the
Vancouver region abandon livability and sustainability through the construction of more freeways. And
as a parent, I can’t look my kids and grandkids in the face if I don't do whatever I can to stop this
madness.”

Approximately fifty people were involved in the protest. At one point construction workers moved a
piece of equipment on to the site. Police physically removed protesters blocking the equipment but
there were no arrests. After parking the equipment workers left and did not resume work until after
the protesters were gone from the site.

Patrick Condon is a senior researcher at the UBC Design Centre for Sustainability and has held the
position of the James Taylor Chair in Landscape and Liveable Environments.