TORONTO - Protestors blocked a major traffic artery in downtown Toronto to show solidarity with a protest camp that is halting construction at an Enbridge Pipeline facility that will be used to pump oil east through Ontario to Montreal. The protest was one of a dozen solidarity protests that took place in cities and First Nations communities across Canada.
Enbridge plans to reverse the flow of an existing underground pipeline, known as Line 9, which runs under Toronto.
Three dozen activist gathered in front of a Toronto court house before marching onto University Avenue. They caused traffic grid lock by blocking cars from passing. A black banner was strewn across the road to symbolize an oil spill. The police, who did not attend the protest, arrived ten minutes later, and the event ended shortly afterwards. No arrests were made.
"People need to put their bodies on the line to stop this pipeline," said Lana Goldberg an organizer of the Toronto protest.
"This was to communicate the urgency of this issue" said Sakura Saunders, another organizer of the protest, "and to show solidarity with the direct action that is taking place"
She was referring to the protest camp blocking an Enbridge pump station, near Hamilton since June 20th. The camp has been dubbed 'Swamp Line 9'.
At approximately 8:15am this morning protestors received a court injunction ordering them to leave the site of their protest, according to a statement on the protest camps website. The statement says that some members of the group will be breaking the injunction, and other are rallying across the street.
Hours after the injunction pre-planned protests took place in Toronto, Aamjiwnaang First Nations, Edmonton, Hamilton, London, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Vancouver,Kitchener, Guelph, Kingston,Ottawa, and Montreal. See map below
Tim Groves is an investigative researcher and journalist based in Toronto. He can be reached at timgrovesreports [at] gmail.com and tweets@timymit. For more information on his work, visit http://timgrovesreports.wordpress.com.
