Activists crash federal Conservative event over oil spill (VIDEO)

The political fallout from the English Bay oil spill is not going away anytime soon.

Last week, a federal Conservative press conference became the setting for the latest video by Shit Harper Did, a B.C.-based group that sums up the greatest misses of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his party.

A new video released by the group earlier this week on YouTube shows activists bombarding the media event held in North Vancouver on April 17 to announce an update on the Highway 1 Lower Lynn Corridor Improvement Project.

But things went unplanned when protesters wearing hazmat suits crashed the event. They asked local MPs James Moore and Andrew Saxton whether they were willing to touch a piece of wood with oil on it.

“I’m fine, thanks,” said Moore and when the same question was applied to Saxton, he said, “It’s okay, I can see it very well.”

The activist then quipped, “You can see it but you don’t want to touch it, so why is on the shores?”

They proceeded with dumping a pile of rocks and wood, collected from the shoreline and contaminated with oil from the spill, onto the podium.

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The video also includes a clip of former Kitsilano Coast Guard commander Fred Moxey suggesting the Conservatives are not completely open about the oil spill recovery capabilities of the now-closed base.

Contrary to Conservative claims, Moxey asserts the Kitsilano base could have responded to the oil spill in mere minutes and with the proper equipment to contain and recover spilled oil. It took six hours for crews to arrive from the Richmond base, which allowed the spill to spread and wash up on the shoreline.

“I tell you that I’ve worked for 35 years at that Kitsilano Coast Guard station,” said Moxey. “And they’re telling me that we didn’t have the equipment? And that we weren’t trained?”

“Well, that’s what we did. Our primary job is search and rescue, but our secondary is environment and pollution. I don’t want to call them liars, but I don’t know where they are getting their information from.”

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