We ask you to cut your own throat

Vincent J. Curtis

14 Nov 22

RE: Canada must stop defending Line 5.  Op-ed by Michelle Woodhouse and Reg Niganobe.  Michelle Woodhouse is water origran nabagerat Environmental Defense and Metis Water Protector.  Reg Niganobe is a Grand Council Chief of the Anishinabek Nation.

The article was pretty sleazy as a piece of argument.  Nowhere in the op-ed is it stated what Enbridge’s Line 5 does.  Line 5 supplies Ontario with Alberta crude oil.  If Line 5 were to shut off, Ontario would immediately run out of motor fuel.  That’s right, no gas, no diesel at any prince.  Ottawa may not love Alberta, but the collapse of the economy and, indeed, practically all motorized movement in Ontario would hurt Liberal party chances for re-election. (You the blockade of the Ambassador Bridge was bad for the economy!)

Another sleazy point is the invocation Article 35 of the Charter to protect alleged aboriginal rights - of American Indian bands!

The fact is that Line 5, built in 1953, is buried and the allegation that the pipeline interferes with hunting and fishing rights is of recent discovery.  You will pardon my cynicism.  The reason Line 5 was pushed through northern American states is that the bedrock north of Superior is hard granite and lies close to the surface.  Blasting through that simply wasn’t economical, and a friendly America agreed to allow the use of their territory for a Canadian pipeline.

Line 5 is simply not an ill-maintained threat to aboriginal rights.  It poses no threat to “the environment” writ large, as alleged.  What I see are hands out looking to be crossed by silver.

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