The Council of Canadians will join with thousands of people at Lafayette Square Park (which is located just east of the White House) on Sunday at 2 pm ET for the ‘#Surround’ action against the Keystone XL pipeline. More than 4,000 people have already signed up to participate.
Occupy DC, which is located a short 5-minute walk away in MacPherson Park, will also join in this moment. Bill McKibben writes, “There are places you can’t really occupy, and one of them is the grounds of the White House. They have a fence, they have the Secret Service, and my guess is there are some Marines in there somewhere, too. And anti-aircraft guns. So when you can’t #Occupy, maybe the next best alternative is #Surround.”
The plan is to have the people gathered at Lafayette Square Park to disperse in an organized way around the White House and then join hands to surround it. The action is intended to both send the message to US president Obama that he has the support to make the right decision and stop the pipeline – and that there is a mass of people that is highly organized in this US election year should be make the wrong decision.
Then we will gather back at the park after the action at 5 pm. Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow will be the lead speaker at 5:05 pm for this post-action rally.
The Council of Canadians will be in Washington, DC to highlight the fact that many Canadians do not support Keystone XL and that Stephen Harper and Gary Doer do not speak for Canada when they continue lobby for this potentially environmentally-destructive pipeline.
Harper is scheduled to meet with Obama on Nov. 13 at a summit in Hawaii and is expected to press again for Obama to support the pipeline.
