Time: 12:30, April 20, 2011

Location: McGill College at Sherbrooke

 

MONTREAL--Montreal group Climate Justice Montreal is staging large-scale street theatre in order to draw attention to the human and environmental cost of pipelines and extraction.

 

The street theatre-inspired demonstration will dramatize the effects of an oil spill, using puppets, a 25-foot pipeline dragon, a "cleanup crew" and shiny oil slick made up of human beings.

 

"From Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico, oil extraction is making people sick, polluting the air and water, and fueling climate change," said Climate Justice Montreal member Dru Oja Jay.

 

The group is targetting Canadian energy giant Enbridge, which has an ongoing plan to bring 200,000 barrels/day of Alberta tar sands crude through Montreal.

 

"Just last year, an Enbridge pipeline spilled 20,000 barrels of oil into rivers in Michigan. We don't want that to happen here," said Cameron Fenton, another Climate Justice Montreal member.

 

Ultimately, the group is seeking to highlight extraction as the root of climate change and oil spills.

 

"If we leave it in the ground, it doesn't get in the air, it doesn't pollute the water, and it doesn't contribute to catastrophic climate change," added Fenton.

 

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Contacts:

 

Dru Oja Jay: 514 515 4693

 

Cameron Fenton: 514 467 6413