BREAKING: Keystone XL got rejected -- and we were sitting in for Day 2 of Climate Welcome

Details: Published on Friday, 06 November 2015 17:15; Written by editor

Friends,

Today, as we gathered on the territories of the Algonquin peoples for the second day of Climate Welcome, we received the phenomenal news that President Obama has rejected the Keystone XL pipeline. This decision come after four years of people taking to the streets and taking action out on the land. They risked arrest outside the White House and staged numerous bold, courageous demonstrations to confront the President about the climate and Indigenous rights impacts of the KXL pipeline.

In his rejection speech, President Obama told us that he’s dedicated to making the United States a “a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change,” and that approving the Keystone XL pipeline would drastically “undercut that leadership.”

Obama also mentioned that our Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, was disappointed to hear about this decision.... That’s exactly what made today’s sit-ins all the more important. Led by youth and Indigenous front line activists, today we went in determined to tell Prime Minister Trudeau to get on the right side of history by freezing the expansion of the tar sands.

Will you join our call to freeze the tar sands? Now is the time.

Today, our Prime Minister wasn’t too interested in listening. For the second time, he sent out a representative from the Prime Minister’s office to receive us. After we refused his reception, we escalated our action by blocking traffic on the street in front of 24 Sussex Drive. We were out there for nearly five hours before we decided to de-escalate for the day.

Of course, we’ll be back again for two more days -- with even higher numbers and more gifts for the Prime Minister.

The rejection of Keystone XL marks a monumental victory for the climate justice movement in North America. This was a fight that really fired up when waves upon waves of people risked arrest outside of the White House four years ago, in an action not unlike Climate Welcome.

We're hoping to take this fight further in Canada -- check out our website to see live updates on Climate Welcome and help us amplify the story of this action on social media.

In respect and solidarity,

Clayton Thomas-Muller

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