The fight against construction of Enbridge Company's Line 3 in Minnesota, carrying tar sands oil from Canada through the Midwest, was the largest Indigenous-led pipeline resistance in North America after Standing Rock. Opposition from 2017-2021 brought thousands of people from across the country to join front-line camps in solidarity. The repression was brutal with over 1000 activists charged with criminal offenses. Jan Haaken talks with Claire Glenn and Kira Kelley, attorneys with the Climate Defense Project, about these cases, the activists still facing charges, and what the lessons are for strategies of resistance. Glenn and Kelley take up what they view as key principles in movement lawyering and the limits of using the courts as a forum for justice.
No Trespassing sign with anti-Enbridge graffiti in Palisade, Minnesota; Photo by Laurie Shaull: licensed under Creative Commons: https://www.flickr.com/photos/number7cloud/51299054330
- KBOO