ENVIRONMENTAL PROTEST AGAINST LINE 9 PIPELINE

The story was published in the January 4, 2016 Waterloo Region Record and is titled "Waterloo woman running length of 800-km Line 9 pipeline in protest". Rachel Thevenard has decided to run the length of the proposed Enbridge's Line 9 reversal of flow pipeline from Sarnia to Montreal. The plan is to also transport bitumen as well as crude oil. If my memory serves me correctly bitumen is thicker and possibly more toxic than regular crude oil.

There are many issues involved in this protest including Enbridge's past failures both with pipeline maintenance and with cleanups of spills. The most infamous is the damage done to the natural environment and the Kalamazoo River in Michigan in 2010. Another issue deals with the requirement that governments must consult First Nations prior to allowing developments that affect their lands. The Canadian government has shown its willingness to talk while at the same time not listen.

Recently our new federal Liberal government have been indicating that there will be stepped up environmental assessments again for some of these proposals. They will not stop any currently in process but they will apply for all new ones. Can you imagine an environmental assessment process that actually had an honest "No" option if the facts and data indicated that the project wasn't safe or in the public interest?