Line 5 ACTION ALERT: Tell Canadian Ministers to Stop Misusing the 1977 Transit Pipelines Treaty

From: Cross Border Organizing Working Group of the Line 5 Coalition
Posted on Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative
Shared here with permission

During the COP 15 Biodiversity Conference in Montreal last December, Indigenous communities protest against Enbridge, the company owning Line 5. (File photo © and courtesy Rebecca Kemble of the Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative)

The Cross Border Organizing Working Group of the Line 5 Coalition is an international group of activists and Indigenous leaders working to shut down Enbridge’s Line 5. We have drafted a letter to key Canadian Ministers asking them to stop misusing a 1977 treaty in order to keep a decrepit pipeline in service.

Canada has formally invoked Article Six of the 1977 Transit Pipelines Treaty twice to keep the 70-year-old Line 5 operating. First on October 4, 2021, in response to Michigan Governor Whitmer’s order to shut the pipeline down after a ship’s anchor strike causing significant risk to the Straits of Mackinac. They did so a second time on August 29, 2022, when the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa discovered serious erosion beneath the pipeline leaving it unsupported, and at significant risk of failure with the next severe weather event.

We intend to deliver the letter on April 24, the day after Line 5 turns 70 years old, 20 years past its planned life expectancy.

Please join us in asking the Canadian government to stop impeding the efforts to uphold the inherent rights of the Indigenous Nations of the Great Lakes while honoring all of the treaties with Indigenous Nations north and south of the border that predate and supersede the 1977 pipeline treaty. You can sign on to the letter as an organization or as an individual HERE or CLICK HERE to read a copy of the letter and sign it on the Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative Web site.