Line 9

Rally October 17th urging Council to Oppose the Line 9 Reversal

9am, Wednesday October 17th

Hamilton City Hall (Main st, between Bay and McNab)

Join us for a half-hour rally before your workday starts

On Wednesday October 17, the General Issues Committee (GIC) of the Hamilton city council will be receiving a report from their staff about Enbridge's reversal of their Line 9 pipeline. Line 9 runs through Hamilton and is being reversed to move Tar Sands oil to eastern Canada, ports on the Atlantic, and the United States. After the Conservative federal government cancelled the envrionmental assessment of this plan (along with thousands of other EAs), Hamilton city council decided to comission their own study of the issue.

We are optimistic about the council's decision to study the Line 9 reversal, and we are gathering on the 17th at 9am to ask council to do everything in their power to oppose the Line 9 reversal and any attempt to move Tar Sands oil through the Hamilton area. We will rally until about 9:30, then attend the meeting of the GIC to support the speakers calling on council to oppose the Line 9 reversal. A representative from Enbridge had been scheduled to address council as well, but after twice changing the date, they have now backed out all together. This is a continuation of Enbridge's plan of secrecy and dishonesty, as they refuse to reveal their full plan for Line 9.

The Tar Sands produces the dirtiest oil in the world – its extraction has devastated the Athabaska river, and accidents in transporting the toxic gloop have lead to more than a dozen deaths in Michigan, following a pipeline burst into Michigan's Kalamazoo river. All pipelines spill. If Tar Sands oil travels down Line 9, this thirty-five year-old pipeline will experience more frequent leaks of more toxic oil directly into the Beverly Swamp in the headwaters of the Spencer Creek, Hamilton's largest watershed.

This dirty, inefficient oil also drives the catastrophic climate change, of which Hamilton got a taste this past summer with the record-breaking heat and drought. We also call for the Federal government to respect the sovereignty and treaty rights of Indigenous nations, both in Alberta and locally. Line 9 crosses the territory of the Haudenosaunee, and in the spirit of the Two Row wampum treaty, we call on the municipal government to help see these treaties upheld.

We organize in Hamilton as part of a broader movement to stop the flows of Tar Sands oil, of the natural gas that fuels its extraction, and the money that props the industry up. This movement did not begin with Hamilton's council and it will not end with it. But this is a chance for Hamilton's government to be on the right side of this issue and to lend their support to the grassroots struggles that will keep stopping the Line 9 reversal and the Tar Sands – with or without them.

For updates about this and other events, get on the Hamilton Line 9 mailing list by writing to hamiltonline9@ecologyfund.net or visit hamiltonline9.wordpress.com