Protesters call for cancellation of Enbridge oil pipeline

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/09/2018 (2917 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When T-Dre Player was a Canadian Football League offensive lineman, he knew plenty about protection.

It was his job to protect the quarterback, after all.

These days, even though his pro football days with the B.C. Lions are behind him, Player is still focused on protection, but has taken it world-wide.

Player was the lead speaker and master of ceremonies at Winnipeg’s Rise for Climate — Stop Line 3 rally and march on Saturday at the legislative building to promote clean energy and against the construction of Line 3, the Enbridge pipeline replacementwhich will run 1,160 kilometres from Hardisty, Alta., to Superior, Wis. The cost has been estimated at about $5.3 billion for the Canadian portion and US$2.9 billion in the U.S.

Rally organizer the Manitoba Energy Justice Coalition said the Winnipeg event was one of hundreds that were expected to be held around the world on the same day, calling for a transition from fossil fuels to 100 per cent clean energy. The Winnipeg organizers linked the rally’s clean energy theme with the Indigenous-led Spirit of the Buffalo prayer camp near Gretna, the one-woman resistance led by Geraldine McManus against the Line 3 pipeline.

“All we want is a conversation. We have to hold each other accountable and that, in turn, will hold our leaders accountable. The fight against Line 3, join us,” said Player, 26, who is from Sagkeeng First Nation and has reconnected with his roots.

Player moved to the U.S. when he was a child with his mother, Corinne Fontaine Player of Sagkeeng, and his father, Paul Player, a former University of Winnipeg Wesmen basketball player. The younger Player was chosen by the B.C. Lions in 2014 CFL draft, played from 2014-16, and scored a touchdown in his first CFL game when he lined up as a tight end and caught a pass from Kevin Glenn, a former Winnipeg Blue Bomber.

“The average person should be able to connect the dots on what’s happening and what we’re seeing in media,” Player said. “I would encourage people to research Manitoba Energy Justice Coalition, pay attention to what they’re saying, and Canada350.org is another resource to help the average person to see what they can do.”

Among the speakers were representatives from the Manitoba Electric Vehicle Association to promote non-fossil fuel-burning transportation; Indigenous elder Geraldine Shingoose, widely known as Gramma Shingoose; Rita Monias of Cross Lake; and Steve Heinrichs, the Mennonite Church of Canada’s director of Indigenous-settler relations.

Signs reading, “Keep it in the Ground”, “Peace begins in the Kitchen — Go Vegan”, and “Stop Line 3” were held by rally participants on the steps of the legislative building.

About 200 people marched through the ManyFest market and Sherbrook Street Festival singing, “Resilience, we are strong, shoulder-to-shoulder, keep moving on,” and following giant black snake created by seven people wearing the costume and representing oil leaking from the pipeline.

Last summer, Enbridge began the process of replacing the initial pipeline, which was built in the 1960s. An Enbridge spokesman told the Free Press the Canadian portion of Line 3 is expected to be done in the first half of 2019, while the whole project should be completed in the second half of 2019.

Because Enbridge’s first pipeline can no longer safely transport as much crude oil as it once did, the energy company applied, and was granted permission, to decommission its former line, which means cleaning the old pipeline and leaving it in the ground, unless landowners on both sides of the border ask otherwise.

The new Line 3 will restore the pipeline to its original capacity of 760,000 barrels of oil per day, about double the last line’s capacity.

McManus, a two-spirit Dakota woman from Long Plain First Nation, said that’s a big problem and the reason she keeps her vigil at the prayer camp.

“We all know how much they (pipelines) leak. We know the destruction it causes to the environment, the animals. Our people have been trying, for hundreds of years, to tell everyone, watch what you do to this land. We need this land,” McManus said.

“Where I sit is traditional Dakota territory. My territory. So will I stand and defend it? You’re darn rights I will. And to hell with Enbridge. Enbridge has done nothing but destroy our Turtle Island that has been so beautiful… they are slashing at our Mother with a knife, scarring her. How long will it take to heal those scars? We don’t know. But if we don’t stand up and do something, we’ll never know.”

McManus called on other Indigenous people to join her at the Spirit of the Buffalo camp.

“I’m ashamed of all those people that are not coming out, my Indigenous brothers and sisters,” she told the crowd, naming Long Plain, Dakota Tipi, Swan Lake and Sandy Bay First Nations. “These are where all my relatives are. Where are you? Why do you make me stand alone? It hurts me, that my own people are turning their back on me while I’m out there.”

Representatives and supporters from the Manitoba Energy Justice Coalition will join McManus at the camp on Sept. 15.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca

—with files from Jessica Botelho-Urbanski