Full Circle: Ten Years Later, Still Fighting for the Coast
Posted by Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita
It’s hard to believe it’s been over a decade since I first started this blog, driven by the panic and heartbreak of an oil spill right here on the coast. I remember the exact moment — I was walking home from work on Granville Island and smelled it. The ocean didn’t smell like ocean. It smelled like chemicals, like something deeply wrong. And then I saw it. The slick on the water. The feeling of helplessness surged through me, and I knew I couldn’t stay silent.
Around the same time, the tragedy in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec devastated an entire town because a train full of crude oil was left unattended — no brake set. It exploded. People died. Families lost everything. And the world moved on far too quickly.
But I didn’t. I started painting. I painted all the animals. I created digital art — including an image of my child on the beach, altered to show what it would look like if an oil spill happened right there. Because it could. Because it still might.
I blogged. I filmed protests. I stood beside others who wanted to protect this coast. And I pushed back hard against the Kinder Morgan pipeline, LNG expansion, and the greenwashing of our destruction. I used everything I had — art, voice, camera, blog.
That’s when I got shadow banned. Not all at once. It was a slow erasure. Fewer people saw my posts. My videos weren’t showing up. People said they never saw my updates. The more I spoke out, the quieter my digital presence became. That’s the cost of activism no one warns you about — being made invisible.
And now, ten years later, it’s like déjà vu.
Only worse.
Now it's Wab Kinew, Mark Carney, and once again — pipelines are being rebranded and pushed as if they're the solution to our problems. The climate has worsened, the stakes are higher, and the same actors are back at it — promoting fossil fuel agendas under the mask of economy and progress.
We are back where we started.
Except this time, they rammed the pipelines through. And we have less time than ever.
Why I’m Writing This Now:
Because people forget. Because people move here and don’t know what happened.
Because algorithms erase history.
Because some of us remember.
So I’m resurfacing this blog. And I’m asking you — whether you're new here or have been fighting too — to remember what’s at stake. The coast is not just a view. It’s a living system. It’s home. It’s sacred. And it’s in danger again.
🎥 Watch My Video:
Reflective Questions:
- Do you remember the 2015 oil spill in Vancouver? What changed afterward?
- Why do we allow corporations and politicians to keep pushing pipelines when the science says no?
- What have we learned from Lac-Mégantic, and what have we ignored?
- Why are frontline voices — especially from women, artists, and activists — so often silenced?
I’ll keep posting. Keep remembering. Keep resisting.
Because this coast is worth saving.
Still. Always.
– Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita
http://savemycoast.blogspot.com
