**SPOTS ARE FULL, FORM IS CLOSED**

If you are already in Montreal, please join us at these events!

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Fill out this form with interest in traveling to Montréal (from December 9-11 or 12) to call for the shut down of Line 5 at the COP15 Biodiversity Summit hosted by the United Nations. Sierra Club is providing some funding to provide gas and some food. A large AirBnB has been booked and people can stay on beds or bring sleeping bags for couches/the floor if we have an interest from more than 15 people.

Places in carpools and AirBnB beds will be first come, first serve, so fill out the form right away!

Tentative Schedule:
- Thursday, December 8- Carpools leave and travel to Sandbury or Toronto and stay the night in an AirBnB
- Friday, December 9- Travel to Montréal and settle in at the AirBnB
- Saturday, December 10- Participate in March for Biodiversity and Human rights rally hosted by Greenpeace Quebec. We'll have an international Shut Down Line 5 contingent.
- Sunday, December 11- Participate in a teach in with water protectors from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Montréal about the Line 3, 5, and Line 9 pipeline fights. 

Covid 19 precautions: People in carpools are expected to wear masks when in the car. Participants will be asked to test for COVID (please bring tests) 24 hours before you get in a carpool car to drive to Montréal, and then every morning at the AirBnB in Montréal.

For more information about COP15 and the trip, check out this toolkit here.

Background on COP15 COP 15 on Biodiversity is taking place this December in Montréal, and it provides an opportunity to uplift Line 5 regionally and internationally, where we will have the attention of some of our major targets. Line 5 belongs to a larger fossil fuel project that transports oil from Alberta to Québec- shortcut through the midwestern United States. Line 5 turns into Line 9b- with its final stop in Montréal. Canada’s Prime Minister, Environmental Minister, and Foreign Minister all represent federal districts in Montréal, where the conference will take place. Mélanie Joly, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, recently cited the 1977 Pipeline Transit Treaty as the reason why Line 5 should continue to operate, ignoring the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa’s Indigenous sovereignty in Wisconsin and in defiance of the first ever shut down order on an operating pipeline.

If the Line 5 shut-down order is not enforced because of the 1977 treaty, it will give Enbridge a carte-blanche to ignore the American federal government’s sovereign ability to enforce environmental laws regulating oil infrastructure operating in the United States, which makes our presence at the conference all the more important. Enbridge will have a presence at the conference, so it is crucial that we are there for both defense and offense. Tessine Murji with the Sierra Club- Illinois Chapter has been on the ground organizing in Quebec and working with Sierra Club Canada to build opposition to Line 5. They have established partnerships with other environmental organizations in the area.

Background on Line 5 and our fight Currently, Line 5 is impacting the entire Great Lakes region across borders, and it threatens catastrophe if it ruptures. There are strong movements built up around Enbridge’s proposed reroute / trespass on Bad River lands in Wisconsin and their proposed tunnel / trespass in the Straits of Mackinac in Michigan. Over the past several months, as these campaigns ramp up and it became more clear that President Biden will be a major factor in the future of Line 5, multiple organizations have started working together to build a cohesive narrative and organizing base that tackles the pipeline along its entire route and impacted area.

Currently, Enbridge is operating illegally in two places and is pursuing permits at the state and federal level for future projects to bypass these illegally operating segments. The Army Corps of Engineers, ultimately directed by President Biden, is a major target. The EPA has been a relatively friendly agency throughout permitting, submitting comments that demonstrate the risk of Line 5. We need to ensure that the Biden administration upholds this stance across all agencies. 

Enbridge has repeatedly brought up the 1977 transit pipeline treaty in their efforts to continue operation of Line 5, making Canada a key player in this work. While the majority of tar sands oil passes through the U.S. without being used, Canada does use Line 5 product. Canada being a close partner of the U.S., and Enbridge being a powerful player who usually gets their way, it's crucial that we put pressure both on them and on President Biden, to ensure that Enbridge can’t utilize its relationships to keep Line 5 operating.