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

Wednesday October 17th, 9:00am
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 environmental assessment of this plan (along with
thousands of other EAs), Hamilton city council decided to commission 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
goop 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   

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