Daryl Hannah’s Civil Disobedience Against Keystone XL Pipeline

Actress Daryl Hannah was arrested in August, along with over a thousand others, in front of the White House during a sit-in to protest the proposed pipeline that would carry 700,000 barrels of bitumen daily from the Albertan oil-sands down to Texas for further processing.

“I’m here today to participate in civil resistance to the Keystone XL pipeline,” said Hannah, “which is going to bring a really destructive form of bitumen, which is a raw crude, all the way through our country, from Canada all the way to the Gulf of Mexico over the most sensitive water aquifers, the largest water aquifer that we have in this country, very sensitive ecosystems, and also it will lock us in to being dependent on fossil fuels for generations to come.”

Greenpeace, along with hundreds of Canadians concerned about the environment, followed the US rally with their own protest in September in Ottawa. After speeches from First Nations and environmentalists, demonstrators who had travelled to the capital from across the country staged their act of civil disobedience by crossing a police barricade (with help from the police to traverse the 3-foot fence using stepping stools) and sitting on the ground before Parliament Hill, Canada’s federal government buildings, to wait to be arrested.

“Sometimes it’s necessary to sacrifice your freedom temporarily for a greater freedom,” said Hannah, “and in this case we want to be free of our dependence on fossil fuels.”