Fresh from her first-ever political arrest at a Parliament Hill demonstration on September 26 against TransCanada Corporation’s controversial Keystone XL pipeline, Maude Barlow, chairperson of the Council of Canadians, told the Tyee in a recent email exchange that she hopes many others will follow her example of nonviolent civil disobedience.

"I do see a new wave of civil disobedience coming and a lot of it will be led by Indigenous communities whose land, water and minerals are especially vulnerable to the global resource grab now taking place," Barlow told The Tyee.

"Governments are like animals caught in a headlight; they don't know how to deal with the financial, social and environmental crisis they have allowed the big business community to unleash on the world, so they are just ducking for cover. Communities and community resistance will lead the way to a more sustainable and just system."

Barlow was one of more than 100 demonstrators who were arrested in the Ottawa demonstration (organized by Greenpeace) on Monday to draw attention to their concerns about the Keystone XL pipeline, slated to carry tar sands bitumen south across America to Texas refineries. Critics say the project will disastrously increase Canada’s contribution to global warming/climate change and endanger vital watersheds and fragile environments along the way.

"The Keystone pipeline is only one of a number of pipelines being built to take Alberta bitumen from the tar sands - the dirtiest oil on earth - to other communities and countries where it will be refined and sold or exported," Barlow wrote.

"These pipelines will put the Ogallala Aquifer and the Great Lakes at risk and must be opposed. There is a huge fight back in Nebraska right now and we need to support the brave people standing up to this industry there. I felt that all the research and scientific reports are going unheeded so the time had come for more direct action."

Although the Ottawa action was Barlow's first political arrest, the longtime activist is no stranger to the front lines of protest. As she noted in her exchange with The Tyee, Barlow has long been involved in political action on environmental and social justice issues "… from Seattle to Quebec City to Toronto during the G-20 and have disrupted the House of Commons during the signing of NAFTA."

She was in Comox last week to speak to opponents of a local coal mine about nonviolent civil disobedience to protect the environment.

"My speech was both about the dangers of coal and the need to up the ante in our resistance to bad energy and mining policy coming from our governments. The community had gathered to talk about the need to start taking clear and direct action to get the word out about the Raven coal mine, so I was also sharing my thoughts on the need to be prepared to put more of ourselves on the line," she said.

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