Tag: tar sands

Water Protectors Lock to Enbridge Drilling Equipment Boring Line 3 Under River

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photo: Giniw Collective

cross-posted from Giniw Collective

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 23, 2021
Contact: giniw@protonmail.com
Water Protectors Lock to Enbridge Drilling Equipment Boring Line 3 Under River
(Straight River, MN) Several Water Protectors locked to a Horizontal Directional Drill (HDD) being used by Enbridge to bore its Line 3 tar sands pipeline under the Straight River in Hubbard County, Minnesota.
Enbridge has over 5,000 workers in northern Minnesota, most of whom are from out-of-state, drilling its tar sands expansion project through our rivers, wetlands, and wild rice waters. The Canadian multi-national applied for a variance in its water usage, upping its need from roughly 500M gallons to 4.98B gallons. It is currently draining rivers and lakes across the northland, during a drought and record-setting heat that put the region in extreme or high fire danger for most of June.
Today’s action follows a mass mobilization of water protectors from all over Turtle Island which resulted in the largest non-violent direct action to date, with nearly 200 arrests and countless more inspired to join the fight.
Police have grown far more aggressive since the mobilization — Hubbard County sheriffs illegally arrested nearly 30 demonstrators exercising their right to assemble last week. A K-9 unit was documented at the Red River crossing near the Red Lake Treaty Camp, in echoes of the attack dogs used on unarmed women and children at Standing Rock.
Despite repeated calls from frontlines communities, a pending federal lawsuit, and over 500 arrests since construction started last December, President Biden has yet to order the Army Corps to perform an environmental review of Trump’s water crossing permits.

photo: Giniw Collective

Water protector, author, and mother Madeline Ffitch said, “I’m here to answer the call to action from Anishinaabe water protectors who are protecting their territory against Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline. I’m a settler on stolen land, and I think at this juncture if that’s true for you, you need to pick a side. I want to be on the side of people who belong to the land, indigenous people who have had their land stolen, and who are in the midst of 500 years of resistance. That’s the side I want to be on and I don’t want there to be any question about that. I want to be able to tell my children and the generations to come that I did everything in my power, everything I can, to make sure that there is a future for the next generations.”

Another Water Protector said, “I come from stolen Monacan and Tutelo land where the Mountain Valley Pipeline is being constructed. I believe that from the hills to the headwaters we need to act in solidarity with all people resisting extraction in their communities. Betray your whiteness, betray your class, be a traitor to a system that benefits you at the expense of indigenous people, a system that steals our futures away from us.”
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Giniw Collective is an Indigenous-women, 2-Spirit led frontline resistance to protect our Mother, defend the sacred and live in balance. We stand unafraid. Prayers into action.
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Reach out to us at giniw@protonmail.com

Two Line 3 actions today!

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pic via Giniw Collective

cross-posted from Camp Migizi and the Ginew Collective

from Resist Line 3 Media: “We wanted to amplify two actions taking place on the front lines of the Line 3 resistance movement today. Both Camp Migizi and the Giniw Collective are shutting construction down!”

From Camp Migizi: A lockdown at a construction site in St Louis county. Find more information on Instagram, Twitter, and from the live streams on their Facebook page.

From the Giniw Collective: 7 water protectors locked down at a Line 3 pump station. Boost this action on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter!
March 18, 2021
Water Protectors Blockade Line 3 Pump Station
(Swatara, MN) Thursday morning, 7 water protectors locked to each other, blocking work on an Enbridge Line 3 pump station.
Enbridge announced it will be ceasing work in sensitive wetland areas per Minnesota law, but will continue work on pump stations and sites in “non-sensitive areas”. A steady stream of water protectors committed to stand with Anishinaabe treaty territory and future generations grows.
The action follows a visit to the Line 3 resistance by Oscar-winning actress Jane Fonda, who is helping to bring the Ojibwe-led struggle into the national spotlight and reach the Biden administration. It is also the week of Representative Deb Haaland’s confirmation as the first Native cabinet member in U.S. history.
As the spring thaw comes to northern Minnesota, the trees are running with maple sap and many Ojibwe have begun the boil for syrup. Water is life, and it takes many forms. It is on us to protect our Mother.
Water protector Dakota McKnight said, “Today I am participating in direct action to against the Line 3 pipeline. I am a student at Macalester College, which is shamefully invested in Enbridge. As person who is of settler descent, I stand in solidarity with the Indigenous people who been fighting colonialism since the Inception of America.”
Water Protector Quintin Grabowski of Bear Lake, Michigan, said, “I am here to take action in solidarity with Natives who are fighting this pipeline that is desecrating the land. When institutions fail us, direct action is one of the last mechanisms that hold our power.”
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Macalester College: Students launch blockade during statewide day of action in solidarity with the movement to #stopLine3

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 3/5/2021

Contact:  Priscilla Trinh, UMN Student, primoria1890@gmail.com for general inquiries, and to be connected with student press contacts at each school

Photos: find more photos of the day here

Macalester College students blockade Grand Avenue during statewide day of action at Minnesota schools in solidarity with the movement to stop Line 3 

(MINNESOTA) Today, hundreds of Minnesota college and university students are staging demonstrations on their campuses to raise awareness of the Line 3 pipeline, and to call on their institutions to divest from fossil fuel industry projects. Students from the University of Minnesota Morris, UMD, UMN Twin Cities, Carleton College, St Olaf College, The College of St Benedict’s, Gustavus Adolphus College, and Macalester College have been collaborating to plan this day of action for months. b`

Emily Wittkop, a junior at the University of Minnesota Morris said, “I’m fighting Line 3 for several reasons – the danger to our environment, the violation of Minnesota’s treaties, the impact of oil on the world’s political climate. I’m also pushing the University of Minnesota to begin fossil fuel divestment so that the financial investments of UMN matches their stated mission and the will of the student population that pay so much for their education here.”

For this statewide day of action, student activists at 8 Minnesota schools are staging art installations, hosting protests, and talking with their peers about how their schools are funding construction of the Line 3 pipeline. (More information about each school’s activities available upon request.)

At Macalester College in St Paul, 350 students have blockaded the city street, Grand Avenue, that runs through the campus. Dozens of Macalester students, alumni, faculty, and staff have been involved in the Line 3 resistance movement over the years, and several have even been arrested protesting on the frontlines in recent months.

Helen Meigs, a Macalester senior, said “We are out here today because it is unethical for Macalester to claim that they are preparing us for the future when their investments are part of the system robbing us of that very future. Macalester’s investments in Enbridge support a pipeline that will have devastating consequences for global climate change, a pipeline that when it spills, will poison the drinking water of millions along the Mississippi, a pipeline that violates the treaty rights of the Anishinaabe people. We are here today in solidarity with the indigenous water protectors up north and to call on Macalester to stand with us and divest to stop Line 3.”

Students from the 8 participating schools have been collaborating to prepare for today’s activities for months. Connecting over zoom meetings and workshops, they’ve developed a community and had space to discuss their shared values and visions for a better world. It was those relationships that pushed two Macalester College seniors to reinvigorate their divestment campaign with a proposal to the Macalester Board of Trustees specifically calling on them to divest from Enbridge Energy in protest of the Line 3 pipeline. Most of the participating groups have made ongoing or past fossil fuel divestment asks of their schools’ administrations.

The coalition of Minnesota schools also collaborated with students from around the US and Canada to plan the Student Divestment Virtual Rally to #Defund Line 3 for today at 3 pm.

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Giniw Collective: Water Protectors Blockade Multiple Line 3 Worksites

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cross-posted from the Giniw Collective

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 24, 2021
Water Protectors Blockade Multiple Line 3 Worksites
(Savanna State Forest, MN) Wednesday morning, 3 water protectors blockaded over one dozen active Enbridge Line 3 worksites with 2 different blockades. On one side, 2 Indigenous water protectors locked into a flipped over vehicle — on the other, 1 water protector ascended nearly 40ft in the air on a bi-pod blockading the entry road.
As water protectors rallied at both sites, snow fell on the surrounding wetlands and forest slated for destruction by Enbridge’s mostly out-of-state, transplant workforce.
Non-violent resistance to Line 3 continues to grow across Anishinaabe treaty territory in northern Minnesota. The new moon, Onaabini-giizis “hard crust on snow” moon, is about to begin, signaling an end to the winter snows.
Big Wind, Northern Arapaho Tribe, “As a tribal citizen from an “oil and gas tribe”, I know we are not devoid from the societal norms that prioritizes profit over the planet. For generations, multinational corporations have douped us all with their hush money. No more. We are waking up. Our silence will not be bought.”
Danny Leclaire, Shoshone-Bannock Tribe, said, “PROTECT THE WATER, PROTECT THE MISSISSIPPI, LINE 3 WOULD RUIN THE DRINKING WATER TO MILLIONS DOWNSTREAM. WE HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO FUTURE GENERATIONS TO STOP THIS MADNESS.”
Water Protector Rose said, “I want to live in a world where we are deeply connected to the land and the water. Line 3 is a disease of greed and destruction. I am taking a risk as an act of love for the forest, the wetlands, the rivers and the lakes I grew up with. I am proud to stand with those Indigenous to this land who are fighting for all of our futures.”
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