Awareness Film Night and Transition Sooke are teaming again to present a special evening with Andrew Nikiforuk, the journalist and author widely recognized as one of Western Canada’s top authorities on the fossil-fuel extraction industry. Nikiforuk writes regularly in The Tyee, has won eight National Magazine Awards and has published such landmark books as The Energy of Slaves, Tar Sands and Empire of the Beetle.

We’ll get underway at Edward Milne Community School at 7 p.m. with a screening of the short film A Last Stand for Lelu by young BC filmmakers Farhan Umedaly and Tamo Campos. It vividly documents the pushback by the Lax Kw’alaams First Nations of Prince Rupert against the construction of Pacific Northwest LNG, a massive LNG terminal backed by Malaysian energy giant Petronas.

Nikiforuk will then take the stage for an hour-long talk based on his latest book, Slick Water (2015, Greystone Books/David Suzuki Institute). The powerful work of investigative journalism interweaves the science of fracking with stories about the human and environmental repercussions left in its wake. The book raises dramatic questions about the role of Big Oil in government, society’s obsession with rapidly depleting supplies of unconventional oil and gas, and the future of civil society.

He’ll also be discussing other big energy infrastructure projects, most notably Ottawa’s recent approval of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. Formerly based in Calgary, Nikiforuk now lives in Campbell River. Learn more about the man and his work here: http://andrewnikiforuk.com/

“Slick Water is a true-life noir filled with corruption, incompetence, and, ultimately, courage. It is a deeply informative, disturbing, and important book.” – Elizabeth Kolbert, 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History.

“Andrew Nikiforuk crafts a stunning picture of fossil fuel industry and government abuse” – Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything

Admission, as ever with Awareness Film Night, is by donation.