U.N. panel on Indigenous points asks Canada and U.S. to close down Line 5 pipeline

The 70-year-old Line 5 pipeline transports Canadian oil underneath the tumultuous waters the place Lakes Michigan and Huron join. That space — the environmentally delicate Straits of Mackinac — can be the nexus of tribal land and waters ceded within the 1836 Treaty of Washington.

The Canadian authorities has been strongly supportive of Enbridge’s pipeline initiatives in america, and has tried to intervene quite a few occasions in Michigan Legal professional Normal Dana Nessel’s ongoing authorized struggle to decommission Line 5.

President Joe Biden has not taken a public stance on Line 5, so the place of the federal authorities on the difficulty stays unclear whereas pipeline treaty talks between the 2 nations proceed.

In March, dozens of native Democratic occasion leaders despatched a letter to Biden urging his administration’s authorized help in Nessel v. Enbridge. In January, Michigan Democratic Social gathering (MDP) Chair Lavora Barnes requested Biden to declare a local weather emergency and cancel the presidential permits authorizing Line 5 to cross the United States-Canada border.

“The Anishinabek are the folks of the Nice Lakes and by no means earlier than has there been such a unified name for motion for each america and Canada to desert failing fossil gasoline infrastructure to guard our land and water,” stated Bay Mills Indian Neighborhood Ogimaakwe (President) Whitney Gravelle.

A coalition of Indigenous leaders and environmental advocates participated on this yr’s discussion board to push for Line 5 to be a spotlight of human rights concern.

The petitioners included representatives of 10 of the 12 federally acknowledged Anishinaabek tribes in Michigan: Bay Mills Indian Neighborhood, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa & Chippewa Indians, Hannahville Indian Neighborhood, Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians of Michigan, Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi, Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. 

Different petitioners are representatives of the Unhealthy River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians and Purple Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, each of that are rooted in northern Wisconsin; the Anishinabek Nation, a First Nations group that represents 39 member First Nations in what’s now Ontario, Canada; the Georgetown Environmental Legislation and Justice Clinic, Heart for Worldwide Environmental Legislation: EarthRights Worldwide; and Environmental Defence Canada.

In early April, the entire above petitioners additionally despatched a letter to the U.N.’s Human Rights Council asking that Canada be made to desert efforts to guard Line 5.

“Our choice to handle the United Nations Everlasting Discussion board on this matter displays the Anishinabek Nation’s unwavering dedication to making sure Canada upholds its worldwide obligations as a member of the worldwide group,” stated Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Reg Niganobe.