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Canada's Campbell on collision course with aboriginal groups over pipeline.
When a deep ocean tug called the Pathfinder lost its way in Prince William Sound one day this winter, it ended up running aground on Bligh Reef, the same ragged line of rocks that 21 years earlier had gutted the Exxon Valdez.
The accident didn't cause a lot of damage–no one was injured and only 33,500 gallons of light diesel were spilled–but it raised alarms because the tug was part of a fleet assigned to safely escort oil tankers through Alaskan waters.
Somehow a boat meant to prevent accidents had hit what U.S. Senator Mark Begich of Alaska noted was "one of the most well-marked and well-known reefs in the northern hemisphere."
It is because of accidents like that, and the dark specter of the Exxon Valdez disaster which still haunts the West Coast, that Premier Gordon Campbell finds himself on a collision course with a powerful coalition of aboriginal groups over a proposed multibillion-dollar pipeline.