Our black, 32 foot long Line 9 Snake was built by many people, each giving a few hours of their time. People volunteered to sew, paint black letters on white fabric, cut out plastic teeth, and engineer the head. The body was designed to be held up with 4 foot dowel poles and the cardboard head to be held up by a broom handle. After a pretty intense day (the NEB announced approval of reversal of Line 9 for dilbit under increased pressure at 4:40 pm so we had to get out our press release immediately) the Snake was finished by Roberta at 11:00 pm Thursday March 6 and left at 8:00 am the next morning for Toronto with Paula Marcotte, Anthony Verberckmoes, Rory and Roberta Cory.
It was a splendid day at Queen's Park: clear, cold and crisp. We unrolled the Snake and attached the body to the head with velcro tabs. As people were arriving at the Stop Line 9 rally they saw the Snake and took up a dowel pole to walk the Snake around in front of the Legislature. Finally the Snake positioned itself behind the speakers and the banners from Idle No More, 350.org, Rising Tide, and other eco justice groups. Mark Calzavara, our CoC Regional Organizer, sent his cell phone picture of the Snake to Maude Barlow, and she sent back her approval and support. There were around 300 people at the rally and about 50 media cameras!! As Sakura, one of the speakers for Rising Tide said, we all knew the NEB would be a rubber stamp for Line 9 and so we see this as the kick off for our real campaign across Ontario to demand an independent Environmental Assessment.
Many of our members are taking the excellent "Not Worth the Risk" report to their MPPs and City Councillors and the Snake will appear at a rally here in London at the Forks of the Thames very soon - date to be announced.
More on the rally:
http://rabble.ca/news/2014/03/line-9-will-snake-across-ontario-and-quebec-waterways
Information on Line 9: http://risingtidetoronto.noblogs.org/files/2014/02/NEB_report_final.pdf
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/news/hamilton-protesters-denounce-line-9-reversal-decision-1.2564095
http://desmog.ca/2014/03/06/concerns-mount-about-61-year-old-enbridge-pipeline-great-lakes
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