MONDAY'S ALBERTA TAR SANDS PROTEST

My eyes and ears on the hill informed me of a mass demonstration to take place at Parliament Hill early Monday morning.  Byron told me that on Friday morning the Ottawa Police, RCMP and Canadian Military converged on Parliament hill to run through security logistics and detail.  The protest is not an underground movement and has been well pressed and documented.  

The press release is as follows:  Canadian and U.S. environmental and civil society leaders today endorsed a call from the Indigenous Environmental Network, the Council of Canadians and Greenpeace Canada for people in Canada to join a mass protest featuring a civil disobedience sit-in against the tar sands in Ottawa on September 26th.

Mondays 'sit-in' is somewhat of a continuation of a protest at the White House in August and September where 1200 people were arrested including notable Hollywood stars.  Reuters continues to cover the story and the follow up in Ottawa.  The list of participants and supporters is vast, from the union that represents the Tar Sands Workers, to the Council of Canadians, the Indigenous Environmental Network and Greenpeace Canada (click on each to see their platforms) and has been endorsed by prominent U.S. and Canadian scientists, Order of Canada members, authors and environmentalists including Maude Barlow, Shirley Douglas, George Poitras, James Hansen, Graeme Gibson, Dr. John O'Connor, Clayton Ruby, Judy Rebick, Naomi Klein, Tom Goldtooth, Bill McKibben, Gordon Laxer, Tony Clarke, Bruce Cox and Joe Uehlein.

The topic is two fold: the Alberta Oils sands and the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would carry the crude oil out of Canada to the US.  The Tar Sands are Canada's largest source of Industrial green house gas emissions and have been the subject of much scrutiny and have put Canada and our Conservative government in disfavor with environmentalist and the International community.  What interests me as well is the two prong fight that will take place on the Hill on Monday morning.  The Oil Sands workers are likely fighting the proposed pipeline as it takes refining work out of Canada, but may not be opposed to the ethical and environmental issues that will dominate Mondays' protest.  This may lead to on the hill bickering the could prove to dismantle the efforts on both sides.  Just a suspicion. We'll have to wait and see.  I will of course be there and hopefully not get arrested.  Stay tuned for more!

Byron tells me he spoke with one of the Green peace organizers and there is a planned storming of Parliament.  I will also be following Hannah McKinnon's editorial 'Why I will be risking arrest tomorrow' on rabble.ca.

If you would like to get information about Mondays call to action, or would like to sign up, you can visit the official Ottawa Action Webpage.

FURTHER READING

TAR SANDS WATCH
WIKI
OILS SANDS TRUTH
The PEMBINA INSTITUTE
CLIMATE and CAPITALISM