On April 8, the energy company Kinder Morgan announced it was suspending plans to expand its Trans Mountain pipeline. The news should have been cause for celebration on the Canadian left. Instead, it’s only ratcheted political tensions to new heights.

The pipeline was supposed to transport bitumen across 610 miles, from Alberta’s capital Edmonton to the British Columbia city of Burnaby, and has been in the works since the project was approved by the federal government in 2013. The British Columbia provincial government had other ideas, however. Under pressure from indigenous groups and the Left, its New Democratic Party (NDP) government has worked to prevent construction from being launched within the province. This is what led to the April 8 announcement, which also contained an ultimatum: either an agreement allowing the pipeline to go forward would be reached with the BC government, or the project would be abandoned.

While Kinder Morgan complains it has been “unnecessarily harassed” by the BC provincial government, activists actually have indigenous groups to thank for the project’s suspension. They mounted strong protests and weathered arrests in a show of resistance that has now proved decisive.