[All] Fw: [Stopthetarsandsuw] READ ME! May 9th Coalition: KW Organizing Notes

Mon Apr 16 23:50:03 EDT 2012

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Paisley Cozzarin <paisleycozzarin at gmail.com>
To: stopthetarsandsuw at lists.feds.ca; climate at lists.wpirg.org; Tammy Kovich <tammy at wpirg.org>; Kalin Stacey <krstacey at gmail.com> 
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2012 6:47:00 PM
Subject: [Stopthetarsandsuw] READ ME! May 9th Coalition: KW Organizing Notes

April 16, 2012
May 9th Coalition: K-W Organizing
University of Waterloo

[Minutes attached to this email]  

Summary of the event:
The Yinka-Dene Alliance of six nations communities (http://yinkadene.ca)is on a Cross-Canada action tour against Enbridge, culminating in a rally and march to the Enbridge Annual General Meeting in Toronto on May 9, 2012. 

A group of environmental justice, Indigenous sovereignty, migrant rights, anti-colonial and anti-capitalist organizers in Southern Ontario have coalesced as the May 9th Coalition. This occasion will result in a meeting of grassroots environmental justice organizers from across Ontario to discuss joint strategies and vision for future work in Canada.

The K-W organizers, which include members of WPIRG and Stop the Tar Sands UW, are hoping to mobilize the Waterloo region community to converge in Toronto to support the Yinka Dene Alliance, and rally against Enbridge’s plan to expand the tar sands through projects such as the proposed Line 9 reversal and Northern Gateway.

We are hoping to rent a bus and fill it with activists from K-W and Guelph to meet up with other activist folks from Southern Ontario communities who are marching in solidarity with the Yinka-Dene Alliance. 

Tentative May 9th Schedule:
11:45am: YDA rally, ceremony and march
3:30-7:30pm: Community meal and strategy meeting

More details to come.

Background Information
Line 9
Enbridge has asked for permission to reverse the flow of its oil pipeline through Ontario. 
The Line 9 pipeline runs from Sarnia to Montreal, crossing countless sensitive ecosystems and farms, as well as numerous watersheds draining into the Great Lakes. Reversing the flow and increasing the pressure in the pipeline, as proposed by Enbridge, to transport more corrosive tar sands oil, increases the chance of a spill. Just two years ago, a similar Enbridge pipeline in Michigan spilled three million litres of tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River, causing major contamination downstream. The Line 9 project is part of a much bigger plan to export more tar sands oil to the U.S. and could increase the risk of oil spills, as well as threaten our health through increased air and water pollution at local refineries. Enbridge’s proposal will likely increase the amount of tar sands oil in Ontario. Tar sands oil creates more global warming pollution and chemicals that are harmful to humans than conventional oil, and is more corrosive and dangerous to
 transport through pipelines.

Northern Gateway
Enbridge has proposed the construction of the Northern Gateway pipeline, which would span from Northern Alberta to the west coast of B.C. It would cross thousands of rivers and streams, as well as allow supertankers to transport millions of barrels of crude oil in the midst of the Great Bear Rainforest. The supertankers would have to navigate through treacherous waters in the Hecate Strait, considered the fourth most dangerous waters in the world.

The Yinka-Dene Alliance
“The YDA is one of the leading groups of First Nations opposing the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and supertanker project...we are taking an historic journey - the Freedom Train - from our territories to Toronto. We will make stops for rallies and ceremonies in Edmonton, Saskatoon and Winnipeg along the way....Remembering the Constitution Train of 1980, we will be travelling from our lands to the Canadian centre of financial power - Bay Street - to send the pipeline companies, oil companies, banks, financial media and the government an unforgettable message: tar sands pipelines and supertankers will not be permitted in our lands and waters.” 

Follow up and Resources
Tammy from WPIRG will be sending out an email call out. Registration for a spot on the bus will be necessary. When the call out is announced, please forward it widely. Stop the Tar Sands UW, WPIRG, and other K-W community organizations may meet up again before May 9th. If this occurs, an email will be sent out.

Yinka Dene Alliance: http://yinkadene.caand http://www.facebook.com/yinkadenealliance
Pipe Up against Enbridge: http://pipeupagainstenbridge.ca
Line 9: Inside Climate News andCTV 
_______________________________________________

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