Without even an environmental assessment, oil giant Enbridge
wants to use a 38-year old pipeline to pump toxic tar sands through the most
populated corridor in the country, promoting the tar sands and contributing to climate change. As Toronto enters a two week calendar of events for environmental justice, culminating in a rally on October 19, here are 9 reasons to
stop Line 9.
1) challenge the tar
sands
Line 9 will encourage the development of the tar sands,
which are devastating indigenous communities. According to the Indigenous Environmental
Network, “Northern
Alberta is ground zero with over 20 corporations operating in the tar sands
sacrifice zone, with expanded developments being planned. The cultural
heritage, land, ecosystems and human health of First Nation communities
including the Mikisew Cree First Nation, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, Fort
McMurray First Nation, Fort McKay Cree Nation, Beaver Lake Cree First Nation,
Chipewyan Prairie First Nation, and the Metis, are being sacrificed for oil
money in what has been termed a “slow industrial genocide”. Infrastructure
projects linked to the tar sands expansion such as the Enbridge Northern
Gateway pipeline and the Keystone XL pipeline, threaten First Nation
communities in British Columbia, Canada and American Indian communities
throughout the United States.” Stopping Line 9 would support communities
resisting the tar sands, and prevent its spread eastwards.
2) reduce climate
change
As former NASA climatologist James
Hansen has warned, “If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar that on
which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted,
paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to
be reduced ... to at most 350 ppm.” This year, for the first time in human
history, atmospheric concentrations of CO2 reached 400ppm. In this context we’re
seeing increasing climate disasters—from hurricane Sandy to epic floods in
Alberta and Toronto.
According to a Canadian
scientist and coordinating author of the recently released IPCC report,
“evidence for a warming climate is getting stronger and stronger, and the
evidence of the influence of human activities on that climate change is getting
stronger and stronger…Climate change and warming in particular is
amplified—that is, it’s larger—at higher latitudes. So warming over Canada is
larger than the warming that has been experienced [worldwide] and it is
projected to continue that way. That warming over Canada will continue to be
more rapid than the global [average] warming.”
The tar sands are Canada’s fastest growing source of carbon
emissions, and both its local and global affects disproportionately affect
communities impacted by poverty and racism. Stopping Line 9 and other tar sands pipelines is critical to
reduce climate change.
3) prevent oil spills
Pipeline spills happen all the time--including Enbridge’s Line 6B that spilled 3 million litres into the Kalamazoo River in 2010, the spill of millions of litres in Lubicon
territory in 2011, the spill last March in a residential neighbourhood in Arkansas, and the spill this June in Alberta from Enbridge’s Line
37. As an Arkansas
resident said: “I didn’t even know
the oil pipeline was there…she called me and said, ‘Honey, something’s wrong.’
I came out and smelled it. Then I saw it coming down the street.”
This is what’s in store for communities along the Line 9
route. According to the city
of Toronto’s submission to the National Energy Board, “Neither the TTC, Toronto Fire Services nor
Enbridge appear to have any specific contingency plan to manage a leak of
petroleum should this occur near the TTC entrances…The top stair of the Bishop
Avenue stairwell is at grade and provides no barrier to the flow of the product
should there be a release. If any petroleum product was discharged either down
the stairs or the escalators, or by other routes into the TTC concourse,
platform or track level, there would be an enormous risk to thousands of daily
passengers and TTC workers.”
These bitumen spills can’t just be “cleaned up”: some
components evaporate and poison the air, while others sink and poison the earth
and water. Three years and a billion
dollars in clean-up fees later, and the Kalamazoo River is still contaminated. We
need to stop Line 9 before it spills.
4) protect water
Massive amounts of water are wasted in tar sands production,
which then contaminates the local water while pipelines threatens distant water.
In the words
of Toronto city counselor Anthony Perruzza: “The City of Toronto sits at one of
the biggest freshwater supplies in the world. These pipelines cross the city,
traverse it completely. Any leakage, any rupture, any break, any undetected
leaks over time will have disastrous consequences for us and for our water.” With
the pipeline running down Finch avenue--and not Bay Street or wealthy neighbourhoods in Toronto--oil spills would add to the poverty and racism already imposed on these communities. The
best way to prevent these disastrous consequences is to stop the pipeline.
5) promote health
Tar sands and the oil industry is harmful to our health. Fort Chipewyan,
downstream of the tar sands, is experiencing higher cancer rates. The working
conditions in Fort McMurray contribute to an array of social
costs, including the exploitation of migrant workers, and increased rates
of suicide, addiction and abuse; a few years ago the director of Fort
McMurray’s only woman’s shelter went on hunger
strike to demand more resources. Pollution from oil and other petrochemical
companies in Chemical
Valley undermine health in Aamjiwnaang First Nation and Sarnia. According
to the World
Health Organization, “Climatic
changes already are estimated to cause over 150,000 deaths annually… The risks
are concentrated in the poorest populations, who have contributed the least to
the problem of greenhouse gas emissions.” Stopping Line 9 would be a small but
concrete step towards reversing the health impacts of the oil economy.
6) rebuild democracy
There has been no free, prior and informed consent from
First Nations for Line 9, or the tar sands. Harper has undermined environmental
regulation, there has been no environmental
assessment for Line 9, and Enbridge has given “donations”
to municipalities along the route (including the Hamilton
police, who arrested line 9 protesters for occupying a pumping station). The
National Energy Board (an “ally”
of the Harper government) has monopolized decision-making power, excluded
people from contributing to hearings, and tried to divide the movement
between those they allow to intervene and those they do not allow. Challenging
Line 9 exposes these attacks on democracy, as part of a movement to rebuild democracy.
7) support indigenous
sovereignty
As IEN
states, “Just a few years ago, people in Canada, U.S. and Europe heard little
to nothing about the Canadian tar sands. Today, the tar sands have become a
topic of national and international discussion as stories of cancer epidemics
in the community of Fort Chipewyan, massive wildlife losses related to toxic
contamination, environmental degradation and increased vocal resistance from
impacted communities have shattered the ‘everything is fine’ myth propagated by
the Canadian and Alberta governments.”
From declaration of unity
against pipelines to Healing Walks,
from freedom train to speaking
tour, indigenous communities are leading the movement against tar sands, and providing
an environmental justice framework to understand the threat of tar sands and
the importance of indigenous sovereignty and solidarity.
8) demand green jobs
The billion dollars in subsidies to the tar sands each year
could provide thousands of green jobs, and the climate justice movement
includes labour activists pushing for a just transition from the oil economy to
one based on sustainability. Last year unions endorsed a sit-in against tar sands pipelines and tankers, and this year the Steelworkers Toronto
Area Council has endorsed the rally against Line 9 and provided funding for
First Nations activists to bus into Toronto to join the rally. As a CAW
organizer said last year, “tens of thousands of unionized and other jobs depend
on healthy river and ocean ecosystems. We will be standing in solidarity with
thousands of working people in BC and our First Nations sisters and brothers.” Line
9 will only produce a few temporary jobs in an industry that exposes workers to
chemicals while undermining the environment on which future jobs depend. Stopping
Line 9 is part of a movement demanding good green jobs for all.
9) build the
environmental justice movement
Last October 22 there was a mass sit-in in Victoria, led by Coastal First
Nations with participation from environmental groups and unions. On February 17
there was a huge protest outside White House against the Keystone XL pipeline.
These movements are creating major barriers to pipelines going west and south,
and there is a similar movement emerging against Line 9, from Aamjiwnaang to
Montreal. During the next two weeks in Toronto there is a series of events leading up to the National
Energy Board hearings, where people will be intervening against Line 9 in the hearings and in the streets. Join the movement!
*Tuesday October 15: Do The Math movie screening and panel discussion, by Toronto350, 5:45pm and 8:15pm at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema
