November 17 2012 Conference: "The Tar Sands Come to Ontario: No Line 9!"

[pres...@toronto350.org]

I will be at this conference all day today, posting notes from the various discussion groups.

If you can make it out to U of T today, please do. Sessions run from 10:30am - 12:00pm, 12:45pm - 2:45pm, and 3:00pm to 5:00pm. The big name speakers are mostly at the 12:45pm session.

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This is the program for the conference.

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Facilitator: Meaghan Daniel (Movement Defence Committee)

Resource people: Albert Koehl (EcoJustice), Dave Vasey (Environmental justice activist), Ben Powless (Indigenous Environmental Network)

More than forty people present

Dave Vasey: One of the most important strategies at this point is direct action

* National Energy Board "has rubber stamped 99.9% of tar sands projects to date"

* Enbridge has submitted an application to reverse the second portion of Line 9, from Hamilton to Montreal

* "We can expect this to be rubber stamped"

* "Incumbent upon all of us to put our bodies on the line"

* Possible to target political decisionmakers and sources of finance, as well as on-the-ground construction efforts

Direct actions to date:

* Greenpeace took action in Alberta

* The Rainforest Action Network has targeted Royal Bank as the most important financier of the tar sands

* Action camp in B.C. (people will be Skyping in at noon)

Albert Koehl: Ecojustice provides free legal services to environmental groups

* Bigger picture on Line 9 - a response to difficulties in shipping tar sands oil west or south

* This is not just about spills - it's about climate change and carbon

* More than 85% of Ontario's oil already comes from western Canada, though it largely remains conventional oil for now

The National Energy Board scopes their assessments very narrowly - do not consider climate change

* Only evaluate "pipes and pumps"

* There is still an opportunity to protest and raise public awareness at the hearings

* People can write to the NEB to ask for a public hearing

* It is also possible to pressure the Ontario government to consider their own environmental assessment - they may say no, but they have to answer

* The standard should be "free, prior, and informed consent"

The other part of this equation: talk about demand

* If we don't want this oil, we need to explain our alternative

* Alberta: "We wouldn't be taking it out of the ground if people didn't want it"

Ben Powless: The Indigenous Environmental Network has been doing a lot on the tar sands

* The human rights of indigenous communities are being impacted by tar sands expansion

* The legal rights of indigenous peoples provide a powerful tool for stopping tar sands development

Impacts:

* Some First Nations (FN) communities are totally surrounded by tar sands development

* Water contamination - groundwater, the Athabasca River, the Arctic Ocean

* These constitute violations of Canadian and international law

Ongoing lawsuits:

* Beaver Lake Cree Nation

* Athabasca Chippewan First Nation - suing Shell

Globe and Mail and other national media are now recognizing that this pipeline will not go through

* Everyone assumed Keystone XL would be immediately approved

* Former Minister of Aboriginal Affairs Jim Prentice: "The Crown obligation to engage First Nations in a meaningful way has yet to be taken up" - http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybrew/jim-prentice-predicts-legal-confrontation-first-nations-over-204131449.html

"What really needs to happen here is that we need to back up the formal legal process with people power"

* Prevent the media from dismissing concerns as a technical issue

* This is a human rights and indigenous rights issue

* Also, a choice about the future of our society

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There are more than 100 people at the conference.

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Questions:

[Note: Video is being shot at this session for the CBC]

1) How can we effectively ask for a provincial environmental assessment?

Letters, petitions, etc

Private projects like this must be specifically designated for provincial consideration

There are obvious provincial impacts, including on waterways

A provincial assessment would be an opportunity for public engagement

* Also, to bring up climate change and other issues the NEB would prefer to ignore

2) What can be done to get municipalities on board?

The provincial environment ministry cannot ignore requests from municipalities for environmental assessments

Likewise, demands for a public hearing would likely generate some sort of response

People can demonstrate their support in many ways: putting their bodies on the line, being present in solidarity, fundraising, etc

Dumpsite 41 struggle could be a model

* See: http://stopdumpsite41.ca/

* Also: http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/814622--province-buries-site-41-dump-site-in-simcoe

OPIRG has been organizing meetings in North York

At the People's Assembly later (3pm - 5pm), people will be breaking into geographical groups

* To plan for door-knocking campaigns, etc

3) How to effectively engage the media? Toronto newspapers, etc

Stress the differences between conventional crude and tar sands diluted bitumen

* The pipeline will be passing through heavily populated areas

Local counsellors quick to dismiss this as a federal issue

The media is becoming "more pipeline literate"

It hasn't yet been determined whether there will be a NEB public hearing on the reversal

4) Is emphasizing climate change the right strategy?

* Or might it be more effective to focus on immediate impacts, such as health?

* Likely that sympathetic journalists could help spread the message

* Climate change "very indefinite" to the general public

It could be promising to call for health studies in First Nations communities

* Health Canada has resisted so far

There are dramatic, immediate climate change impacts that attention can be drawn to

* Most visibly, the vanishing arctic

This isn't about choosing one tactic, but about weaving all narratives together

* We have enough people to do all of the above

There is a risk in focusing on health and safety concerns: Enbridge may be able to argue that this is a non-issue and thus circumvent all opposition

People see the impacts of climate change, and yet are not willing to take action

* One response is to become more mean and focus on your own welfare

* Everyone ignored Haiti during Hurricane Sandy

* If we don't build a more compassionate society, things may become very mean over coming decades

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Wes Elliott: Haudenosaunee land defender

Treaties supersede Ontario provincial legislation

Vanessa Gray: Aamjiwnaang First Nation

First Nation located near Sarnia, Ontario

* AKA 'Chemical Valley'

* Most common reported impact from the presence of the chemical industry is fear

Youth from the community participated in this year's Power Shift conference

Aaron Detlor: Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI)

"We're not Canadians. I can't stress that enough. We've never been Canadians and we never will be Canadians."

* They have never been asked, and probably would not want to be if they were

Treaty area from Ohio to Oshama, down to Carolinas and up to Sudbury

* Promises the Haudenosaunee "free and undisturbed harvesting"

* Provincial and federal governments are now pushing for the Line 9 reversal

* So are the financial interests that back these governments

Haudenosaunee jurisdiction doesn't derive from treaties with settlers and colonizers

* Movement of tar sands oil through Ontario doesn't help with building sustainable communities

* So far, Enbridge has said they don't need to talk with the HDI

* The Haudenosaunee find the environmental assessment and court processes to be unsatisfying

* Don't want to be "recolonized by another process"

Now seeking a cease and desist order from the chiefs

Ontario Provincial Police now "have some cognizance about treaty rights"

"We need to come up with a strategic means for developing a relationship between the different groups here today"

* Should aim to come away with something concrete today

Art Sterritt: Coastal First Nations

Spokesperson for Defend our Coast - group opposing tar sands pipelines in British Columbia

* From the Skeena River area

20,000 people in the Great Bear initiative

Very few treaties in British Columbia, unlike the rest of Canada east of the Rockies

* There are no treaties in the whole Northern Gateway pipeline area

* Court cases have established an obligation to consult with First Nations

Coastal First Nations have signed government-to-government agreements with the province of British Columbia

* First in 2001

At times, there has been conflict with the environmental community

* For the most part, environmental groups now recognize First Nations rights and title

Collaboration with unions and municipalities

Everybody in the region had agreed to a development plan, but Enbridge tried to insert the Northern Gateway pipeline (NGP) into the middle of the region it covers

* Originally, Enbridge said they would not proceed without the support of First Nations

* Subsequently, there were the Kalamazoo spill and the Deepwater Horizon spill

* Declared a ban on tanker traffic in the Great Bear Rainforest: based on lessons from Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico

* Cajuns: "If you ever allow oil into your territory, they will change your whole way of life."

Necessary to garner enough support across British Columbia to effect change

* 80% of British Columbians now support the campaign to stop the Northern Gateway pipeline

To stop Line 9, it is necessary to personalize the issue

* In B.C. "Defend our Coast" - personalized, and having a great deal of success

Recent rally in Victoria: 5,000 people showed up

* If the federal government approves the NGP, there are many people willing to personally block construction

Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs and the First Nations Summit both oppose the NGP

* Union of B.C. Municipalities has passed a motion opposing NGP

* "That should be the end of the story"

Enbridge and the Conservative government are now undermining Canada's fisheries and environmental assessment laws

* Changed the terms of the review panel while it was in progress

First Nations are getting ready with legal cases, political cases, and direct action

"The richest industry that has ever hit planet Earth is trying to take over our country"

* All of Canada needs to come up with a plan to resist

Maude Barlow: Council of Canadians

"We have to form a peoples movement around the world to fight what these corporations are doing"

Background on the tar sands:

* Producing 2 M barrels of oil per day

* Dirtiest oil in the world - corrosive, eats through pipes - more problematic when it spills

* Problematic even when it is transported safely

* $40B to be spent on new pipelines to export bitumen around the world

* Add 3 M barrels per day of production capacity

This is what we're fighting - not one pipeline

* The most terrible energy product on Earth

Bill McKibben - if the people of B.C. can stop the pipelines, they will be doing it for the whole world

Line 9 is also a challenge for the whole world

The pipelines are the arteries of the tar sands

* If we cannot stop them, we cannot stop the dramatic increase in the tar sands

* Once pipelines are built "there is a terrible imperative to keep them filled at all times"

The oil companies are now driving policy in Canada

"I don't think they're going to get through the 132 First Nations that have said 'you will not pass'"

What industry and the Canadian government are focusing on now is the east

* In response to the probability of failure to build pipelines in B.C.

* Re-opening effort on Trailblazer, reversing Line 9

Line 9 to run through communities with 9.1 M people

Transcanada is proposing another pipeline through Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick

* To export tar sands oil through St. John

More than 2/3 of tar sands production is now in foreign hands

* It would still be a problem in Canadian hands

* But this makes it much harder to transition to a clean energy future

The task that we have is not to have one pipeline fight, but to create a coalition right across North America

* Must support the Keystone XL blockade in Texas

Atlantic Canada and Quebec are importing energy from places where great damage is being done

* The appropriate response is to build a clean energy future for all of us

The Harper agenda is very clear - make the country a superpower by allowing full exploitation of energy and resources

* Removing every barrier and tool that has been available to fight for a just assessment

* Gutting of scientists at Environment Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Fisheries and Oceans, Parks Canada

* Many pure science research facilities being shut down

* Department of Fisheries and Oceans admits that "they can do no serious analysis of the Northern Gateway pipeline" because they lack the capacity

* Negotiating trade agreements that give corporations "enormous new powers"

* Canada-EU free trade agreements would forbid the changing of rules within sectors once European corporations have invested

* Chinese companies are being given rights that supersede the democratic rights of municipalities across Canada

* Blocks future federal governments from instituting new environmental protections - grants corporations the right to sue the government for damages in this event

Increasing commodification of nature

Athabasca Chippewan resistance against Shell refinery

* See: http://www.fortmcmurraytoday.com/2012/10/01/first-nation-challenges-shell-expansion

* We have the passion of our people, the truth, and the constitution of Canada on our side

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Questions:

1) How can we unite in one action against the tar sands, individualizing and personalizing the issue?

Alliances between coastal First Nations, municipalities, and logging companies required "thousands of meetings"

* Trust-building a gradual process

Actions really need to be thought through

* Risk of being counterproductive

2) How do we develop effective local action?

"This is what happened in British Columbia"

* 'No pipelines, no tankers' panel taken through small communities in B.C.

There are "wonderful activist communities in Alberta"

* The tar sands are "Canada's Mordor"

3) What alternative way of governing can we strive toward? Is there a historical example we can use?

"The closest in the world probably are some Latin American governments"

* Countries that rejected the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas

* Bolivia, Iceland

Quebec's moratorium on fracking is a model for the country

* There is a US company challenging the law through Chapter 11 of NAFTA

* The existence of such provisions has a chilling effect - prevents governments from being willing to take environmental action

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Strategies

* What has worked in other places? What could work here?

Break-out groups: 

* Direct action

* Another on canvassing and community organizing

* Education and research

* Media (rm 2110)

* Building solidarity

* Lobbying government

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Facilitators: Hussan and Sakura Saunders (@sakura1979)

Feel free to contact them when you have an action that needs media support

* sakura....@gmail.com

* huss...@gmail.com

Brainstorming, building press lists, organizing by region, writing media advisories

Participants:

* OPIRG Peterborough

* High school student / Power Shift attendee

* Unaffiliated photographer

* York community radio station

* Hamilton 350.org / Environmental Defence

* Air Pollution Coalition

* Stop the Tar Sands KW / Environmental Defence

Objective of the session: brainstorm for 30-40 minutes, then split into regional groups

For first segment of Line 9, Enbridge does not yet have permission to run diluted bitumen through that potion of the pipe

Hamilton 350.org

* Recent actions, including a bicycle ride to the Westover Facility

* Planned to have a peaceful protest picnic

* Met with well-organized opposition from supporters of Line 9

* Brought tractor trailers and trucks to block access to a public park

* "Screaming match"

* Unprepared for their "fun picnic" to go in this direction

Brainstorming

* Mailouts, DVDs, etc

* Google Group planning forums

* Things people fear about Line 9

* Threats to waterways

* Community organizing

* "Tell us the truth"

* "Hot liquid sandpaper"

* Public service announcements

* Yes Men style stunts

* Upholding cease and desist orders from groups like the Haudenosaunee Development Institute

* Participate in festivals

* Those favouring unlimited climate change are the radicals

* "Ontario can't be the weak link"

* Big oil's "sacrifice zone"

What do people like from this list?

* Slogans like "Defend our Coast"

* Social events that are also educational

* Walking or cycling along the pipeline route

* Relay from community to community

* Need to disrupt false beliefs

* This is a 37-year-old pipeline, with the same lining as the failed Kalamazoo pipeline

* Highlight any economic harms that might accompany the pipeline

Criticism of ideas

* "Defend our Coast" sounds too militant

* Buttons wasteful and ineffective

* Radical language can shut down communication, for instance harsh attacks against Prime Minister Harper

How to maintain cooperation between radicals of different stripes?

* How can we expand the appeal of messages beyond that group?

We don't need the support of everyone, just of enough people

[pres...@toronto350.org]

Rally at Yonge and Dundas

Facebook campaign: "Make a sign - say no to Line 9"

Active organizations:

* Progressive churches, including Trinity St. Paul

* Universities

* Environmental Defence

* Toronto Evergreen Network

* Friends of the Rouge Valley

* First Nations organizations

* Code Pink

* Physicians for Social Responsibility

* Food movement

* Green Party riding chapters

* Greenpeace

* Unions

* Green 13

Raise money to put an ad in a news source like Now Magazine

Organize a concert?

The People versus Enbridge line 9

* http://www.facebook.com/PeopleVersusLine9

Environmental Defence sent a package of information on Line 9 to all city counsellors

* Also organizing an action at City Hall for December

Targets

* City Hall

* Major banks / Bay Street

* University of Toronto

* Dundas Square as venue for things like flash mobs

* Permit required to protest at Queens Park

* Outside hospitals, stress health risks - University Avenue a concentration

* Leaflets in the offices of supportive doctors

* Enbridge as a local natural gas supplier

Make a list of those willing to speak at schools, churches, etc

People who have connections with printing

* Activists often working with zero budget

* Unions with printing facilities could be very useful

Street theatre

Volunteers to lead specific actions?

* Lucas - help organize a concert - luka...@gmail.com

* Andrea - "Make a sign - say no to Line 9" - Leaflets for doctors' offices