Freedom Train builds campaign against Tar Sands

On May 9, the Yinka Dene Alliance of indigenous groups completed a cross-country Freedom Train by leading hundreds through the streets of Toronto to confront Enbridge over it’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. There was solidarity from high-school students, faith groups, environmentalists, Occupy movement participants and socialists.

The Tar Sands are a capitalist disaster that threaten the earth, water, forest and air and are responsible for epidemics of disease in nearby indigenous communities. But indigenous groups have been leading an escalating campaign against the tar sands and pipelines–from the Fraser Declaration, to a hunger strike, to demonstrations.

The Yinka Dene Alliance has launched a petition that has already garnered more than 13,000 signatures, and organized a Freedom Train across the country–with stops in Jasper, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, and Toronto where Enbridge is having it’s annual AGM. Hundreds took to the streets of Toronto and rallied outside Enbridge’s AGM with one message: no pipelines, no tar sands!