Press release (via Two Row Times)<\/a> :<\/strong><\/p>\nFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
\nfb.com\/RisingTideToronto @RisingTideTor #LockDownLine9 December 3, 2013<\/p>\n
(Toronto, ON) Members of Rising Tide Toronto have locked down to equipment at an Enbridge Line 9 river crossing, effectively halting construction. This construction is taking place before the NEB has approved this pipeline reversal project.<\/p>\n
This action, taking place on Mississauga New Credit territory, was done in solidarity with Indigenous sovereigntist and environmental justice struggles across Turtle Island. All First Nations Band Councils who participated in the hearings urged the reversal not be granted. Amidst outstanding land claims, there has been absolutely no consultation with any Indigenous communities along the route of Line 9.<\/p>\n
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The reversal of Enbridge\u02bcs Line 9 pipeline would allow the oil industry to continue to supply markets with tar sands bitumen, expanding a slow industrial genocide against Indigenous peoples.<\/p>\n
The Line 9 reversal continues to lay waste to the natural world, devastating ecosystems, while further laying claim to Indigenous territories. This project poses an unacceptable risk to all waterways, land bases, and communities along its route.<\/p>\n
The community of Aamjiwnaang First Nation is surrounded by the petro-chemical industry and are put in danger due to their proximity to toxic refineries in Southern Ontario\u02bcs Chemical Valley. This pipeline reversal is part of a legacy of environmental racism that is upheld by the relationship between the Canadian state and resource extractive industries.<\/p>\n
Aamjiwnaang and Sarnia Against Pipelines, which is a coalition of Anishinaabek people from Aamjiwnaang and settlers from Sarnia issued the following statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are at risk with Chemical Valley and we want to protect our Mother Earth and our limited fresh water. It\u02bcs putting people, wildlife, and depleting medicine at risk. We are not in support of the expanding Tar Sands. The fear factor of cancer and sickness is growing in our communities with of the impacts of Chemical Valley and Line 9,\u201d says the statement from ASAP.<\/p>\n
While continuing the severe environmental impacts of tar sands extraction in Dene, Cree, and Chippewyan communities, Line 9 contributes to the direct downstream impact by refineries such as Suncor in Haudenosaunee territory. Pumping tar sands bitumen through Aamjiwnaang only furthers their community health risks around dangerous cancers and respiratory illnesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe need to take direct action as Indigenous and allied communities to defend what future we have left is now.\u201c states Vanessa Gray, Anishinaabe-kwe from Aamjiwnaang and a member of ASAP, \u201cThis project represents the ecological genocide that is being continued by the Harper government, on behalf of the state of Canada, to push their economic benefit at the expense of all future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The current construction, necessary for Enbridge\u02bcs pipeline reversal, is an audacious act of development that undermines the self-determination of Indigenous Nations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are the land.\u201d says Amanda Lickers, a Haudenosaunee member of the Turtle Clan. \u201cThis assault by industrial capitalism on our territories is also an assault on our bodies, on our peoples, our lifeways, and our Nations. Canada is covered in the blood of Indigenous peoples, from international mining to domestic petroleum production.\u201d<\/p>\n
Line 9 directly puts every major tributary that flows into Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence River, as well as two of the largest cities in Canada, in danger. This pipeline is part of the capitalist-fueled agenda of resource extraction, which not only impacts Indigenous peoples and communities most directly, but all peoples.<\/p>\n
As we have seen in Mi\u02bckmaq territory in Elsipogtog, the Canadian state is willing to enforce the violation of treaties and to protect corporate exploitation of land at gun point.<\/p>\n
Direct action is the most effective way to resist the physical reality of environmental contamination, by targeting pipeline construction and other economic infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u201cImmediate and serious action is absolutely necessary to confront the environmental, political and social violence that has resulted from Canada\u02bcs oil dependent economy. As a settler, putting my body on the line \u2013 literally \u2013 is nothing short of honouring the treaties.\u201d states Alice, a member of Rising Tide Toronto.<\/p>\n
Together let\u02bcs build a culture of resistance. Our movements can and must support and engage in effective, on the ground, front line action.<\/p>\n
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