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An Albertan now based in Campbell River, Andrew Nikiforuk (pictured here with Naomi Klein at the 2014 Banff Calgary International Writers’ Festival) has been writing about the oil and gas industry for more than two decades. He’s a contributing editor to The Tyee and has authored a shelf of award-winning books that include The Energy of Slaves, Empire of the Beetle, Saboteurs and Tar Sands.

     Andrew’s hour-long talk will focus on one of the upcoming BC election’s major issues — Liquified Natural Gas development and the social & environmental impacts of fracking. He will cover material from his latest book, “Slick Water: Fracking and One Insider’s Stand Against the World’s Most Powerful Industry,” which is based on the epic legal battle between Jessica Ernst and EnCana Corporation over the contamination of water aquifers from fracking operations in rural Alberta. The case began a decade ago and a final decision from the Supreme Court of Canada is expected soon.  In the process, Andrew will discuss BC’s misfiring LNG dream, the role of Big Oil in government and society’s obsession with rapidly depleting supplies of oil and gas.

      During the Q&A, audience members are welcome to quiz our guest about his many other areas of expertise — the Site C dam, Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, fish farms, the contamination of Shawnigan Lake and the devastation wrought by the mountain pine beetle.

     The night’s theme is LNG, however, and in keeping with AFN tradition, Jo Phillips has lined up the 25-minute documentary A Last Stand for Lelu to begin the evening. Lelu Island is the proposed site of the LNG plant and shipping berth near Prince Rupert.  It is in the middle of the Flora Banks, the most important juvenile fish habitat for the entire Skeena River system.  It is also in the traditional territory of the Lax Kw’alaams First Nations, who voted 100% “NO” for this project. The film was shot by young co-directors Farhan Umedaly and Tamos Campos. The latter is David Suzuki’s grandson.