Mile 767: Lily Lake, Alberta. Interview with Ryan, Pipeline Worker
After departing Edson and traveling due east toward Edmonton, Alberta, we left the Yellowhead Highway, Canada 5 which we had followed since our second day of the pilgrimage. Now, we slanted north-east from Wabamun, trying to make the shortest distance toward Fort McMurray.
This part of Alberta is called the “Aspen Parklands.” Fields are bright yellow with the product of an economy Alberta has had for a long time besides oil: Canola. Unfortunately for us, most north/south roads were a deep pea gravel that made bike travel slow and hazardous, but other than that, it was a beautiful country to ride through—and flat. It reminded me a lot of Ohio where I grew up.
The group took a full rest day at a place called Lily Lake, about 30 miles north of Edmonton. What made the place interesting was that it had been a wild game park in the past, and had the character of a “mini-Jurassic Park” in shambles. There were derelict electric-fenced areas laying about, and a small village of former animal pens that had been turned into short term rentals for humans. Up near the road was a massive abandoned building which had hosted famous country music acts for years until one day it shut down. With a lack of other uses for the property, the owners had opened it up to camping.
At the end of our rest day, we were relaxing around camp when a loud somewhat drunk guy in a skeleton hoodie came around with a few friends who had met us earlier. He heard we were interviewing people about the tar sands and pipelines in general, and proclaimed that he’d be willing to be interviewed. He was gruff and toxic enough that Lou, our videographer didn’t feel comfortable filming him, but after awhile he seemed to settle down, and we got the camera rolling.
A few minutes and a couple questions into the interview, something unexpected happened: his facade dropped away and revealed someone not unlike ourselves. This guy was an organic farmer who tried but couldn’t sustain a living doing that, so he found money where he could. Like many in Canada, that meant working for the oil companies. He had a dream of returning to the land once he had sufficient funding. He had no illusions about the impact of the tar sands, or climate change, and even went on to explain how much of himself he had to put asleep to survive his job.
How similar would any of us have been to Ryan if we had been born in Canada? What do we all currently do in our lives, for our day jobs, for our various pursuits that take the world apart like laying thousands of miles of pipelines through Alberta? What do we all have to put to sleep to keep doing this?
Map of Pipelines in Alberta, Canada
Image source: @Mike Hudema/Twitter
This introduced a theme that was to continue to be important, and perhaps one of the most personally chilling of all. We had met the “enemy”, and frankly they resembled ourselves.
The next morning, part of our group took the biofuel van and headed up the infamous Highway 63 to reach the Fort McMurray First Nation and the Healing Gathering in time for it to start. For Kyle and myself, the next day brought an 80+ mile ride to Lac La Biche and an overnight stay with Brian Deheer, one of the first Canadians to believe in our pilgrimage, and by this time, a good friend.
What follows in the video below is one of the most sincere non-indigenous interviews of the entire pilgrimage, and a moment that I have thought of many times since. Ryan didn’t tell us what company he worked for, and we’re not totally sure his name really was Ryan. Wherever he is, we hope he found the escape he was looking for.
Please stay tuned to the Return to Athabasca as we continue to unpack and share the personal stories from along the Trans Mountain pipeline route. If you are able, please consider fulfilling your pledge or making a contribution now to support frontline activists.
