In Michigan, activists took peaceful direct action to shut down Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline. In May, Governor Gretchen Whitmer ordered Enbridge to shut down the tar sands oil pipeline, calling it a “ticking time bomb,” but they continued to operate, threatening the fragile waterway of the Straits of Mackinac and sovereign Indigenous lands. This is a water protector speaking before cutting off the pipeline Tuesday.

Water protector: “Enbridge violates the public trust every second that Line 5 continues to operate. Enbridge repeatedly and knowingly violated the terms of the 1953 easement and failed to correct structural shortcomings in the Line 5 pipeline. Furthermore, Line 5 has already spilled 33 different times, totaling over 1.1 million gallons of oil.”