By Meredith Aby-Keirstead | June 9, 2021
Published in Fight back! News
Coffee Pot Landing Bridge, MN - More than 2000 people protested at the Treaty People Gathering on June 7 at Coffee Pot Landing, a metal bridge over the Mississippi River, near Itasca State Park and the headwaters of the Mississippi River. The protest was a part of a three day event to build public pressure to stop the construction of Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 pipeline. The pipeline expansion will bring nearly a million barrels of tar sands oil per day from Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin.
The focus of the action was to stop work on Line 3 as well as to send a message to President Biden to halt pipeline construction and to take stronger actions to stop climate change. At one point, over a 150 people trespassed onto the pipeline itself to do civil disobedience.
Line 3 has received national attention from native tribes, the environmental movement and celebrities because its construction threatens to pollute the Mississippi River and Anishinaabe lands. The tar sands oil would also worsen climate change, as it is dirty energy.
Enbridge says that its pipeline is more than halfway completed. Organizers with Minnesota 350.org, Honor the Earth, Giniw Collective and other groups have announced that this is the start of a summer campaign to end pipeline construction.
The next action will be the Metro Rally to #StopLine3 on Thursday, June 10 at 5 p.m. at Gold Medal Park (2nd Street S. and 11th Avenue S.) near downtown Minneapolis.
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