The Council of Canadians Comox Valley chapter rallied today in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
Chapter activist Kathie Woodley has posted on Facebook, “Lots of honks and waves as Comox Valley Council of Canadians joined a rally in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Indigenous grassroots leaders and their allies who were leading a march in prayer and action in Washington, DC today.”
The Guardian reports, “After more than a year of protests at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota, thousands of Native Americans and activists brought the fight to the nation’s capital to demand indigenous rights and raise awareness about issues affecting the communities. The event, the culmination of a four-day protest in the capital, was led by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which has been involved in a longstanding dispute with authorities over the construction of an oil pipeline in North Dakota, culminating in a two-mile march through Washington and rally in front of the White House.”
The Dakota Access Pipeline is being built by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners and Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. The pipeline could carry up to 570,000 barrels per day of fracked oil from North Dakota to Illinois. It would cross 200 waterways, including the Missouri River, which is upstream of Lake Oahe, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s main source of drinking water, and the Mississippi River.
Both US President Donald Trump and the US Army Corps of Engineers have given permission for the pipeline to proceed.
The pipeline is now expected to be operational within weeks.
The Council of Canadians first expressed its solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux in August 2016 and since then 14 chapters — in Regina, Chilliwack, Kent County, Montreal, Fredericton, Saint John, Moncton, Prince Edward Island, Peterborough-Kawarthas, London, Victoria, Thunder Bay, Powell River, and Comox Valley — along with staff in Vancouver and Ottawa, have participated in solidarity actions.
#RezpectOurWater #NoDAPL #DakotaAccessPipeline
