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The costly completion of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project (TMX)—Canada’s only pipeline system transporting crude oil from Alberta to the West Coast—has been a massive boon for Canada’s oil industry while posing existential threats to the environment and to First Nations. One of the last portions of the pipeline expansion was completed on the sacred Secwépemc site called Pípsell, near Kamloops, British Columbia, in violation of prior agreements with, and the treaty rights of, members of the Secwépemc Nation. In Pípsell: The Last Stand, award-winning Cree/Iroquois/French journalist Brandi Morin and documentary filmmaker Geordie Day expose in stunning cinematic detail the human and environmental costs of Canada’s TMX pipeline—and they follow the intense, dangerous, brave struggle of Indigenous land defenders and their allies to halt the completion of the Pípsell expansion.

Pípsell: The Last Stand was produced in partnership with The Real News Network and Ricochet Media. The documentary made its global debut at the 2025 Calgary Justice Film Festival. If you are interested in organizing an in-person screening of Pípsell: The Last Stand, please send inquiries to contact@therealnews.com

Credits:

  • Written and hosted by Brandi Morin
  • Directed by Geordie Day and Brandi Morin
  • Additional editorial and production support provided by Maximillian Alvarez, Kayla Rivara, Ethan Cox, Andrea Houston
Transcript

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Brandi Morin is an award-winning Cree/Iroquois/French journalist from Treaty 6 territory in Alberta. For the last 10 years Brandi has specialized in sharing Indigenous stories, some of which helped spark change and reconciliation in Canada’s political, cultural and social landscapes. Her most notable work has appeared in publications and on networks including National Geographic, Al Jazeera English, the Guardian, CANADALAND, VICE, ELLE Canada, the Toronto Star, the New York Times, Huffpost, Indian Country Today Media Network, the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network National News, and CBC Indigenous.

Brandi won a Human Rights Reporting award from the Canadian Association of Journalists in April of 2019 for her work with the CBC’s Beyond 94 project tracking the progress of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action.

Her debut memoir, Our Voice of Fire, is forthcoming with House of Anansi in 2022.