Line 5 is an Act of Violence

Violence isn’t just physical–Enbridge’s fight to keep Line 5 open is violence. Violence takes many forms. It can mean the physical threat of a pipeline rupture poisoning a community’s water or even taking lives. It can also take the form of what scholars sometimes call “slow violence,” such as the systematic use of legal, financial, and political power to override the rights of people who cannot match that power. By that definition, what Enbridge is doing qualifies as a kind of violence.

Violations of due process are acts of violence because they cause harm. The ongoing operation of Line 5 is an act of violence against critical Great Lakes laws that protect our freshwater for you and me.

On the Bad River Band’s land, Enbridge continues to operate the 73-year-old Line 5 oil pipeline illegally. The company has been trespassing on the Bad River’s land for over a decade, blocking removal through legal maneuvers and attempts to manufacture consent. Meanwhile, Enbridge has long known of defects along Line 5’s entire length. Erosion along the banks of the Bad River has left the pipeline increasingly exposed; one storm could endanger the entire Bad River community.

The ongoing illegal operation of Line 5, and Enbridge’s efforts to weaken Tribal and state sovereignty through court appeals and delays, are acts of violence. So are Enbridge’s proposed re-route and tunnel, which are not good-faith solutions but an abuse of power. Enbridge uses the threat of force to keep oil flowing across protected resources at all costs.

Enbridge knows Line 5 is not needed. Under oath, its own experts admitted the pipeline can be shut down with no noticeable impacts. Multiple industry experts agree. An orderly shutdown would not harm energy supplies, but it would uphold Great Lakes protections and honor Tribal sovereignty. How long will we allow the violent path to be chosen instead?

"We do not have to wait for a spill or for Enbridge to make an arrest to call this violence."

Enbridge’s efforts to narrow permit reviews of the tunnel and the Bad River re-route - to silence the treaty rights for the Bad River Band and public voices of opposition - also attempt to eliminate Great Lakes laws. And now Enbridge is rushing to destroy forests and treaty-protected water to try and deny the due process of the Bad River Band, violating their full right to defend their land and water from this unnecessary violence.

Enbridge’s use of force also includes funding local police to protect their rush to destroy land, an act that attempts to suppress peaceful protest through a promise of violence, much like water protectors faced along Enbridge’s rushed and environmentally disastrous Line 3 expansion. Protecting water by peacefully protesting is not violence; it is standing up to a system that is built by and for oil corporations, a system designed to extract, silence and diminish the public, Tribal treaties, and the once protected Great Lakes.

Enbridge’s acts of violence are a sign of weakness, not power. Every decision-maker has refused to answer this one question seriously: Is the risky Line 5 pipeline needed for Wisconsin or Michigan? The answer is no.

There are safer pathways for Line 5 products to reach all the same customers. I dream of a world where leadership acknowledges this reality and focuses on protecting our freshwater and communities above all else. That world starts with acknowledging the ongoing acts of violence from oil corporations that are destroying our land, water, climate, and peace.

We do not have to wait for a spill or for Enbridge to make an arrest to call this violence. The threats that grow risk, the delays in the courts, and the ongoing occupation are themselves forms of violence. The only question is whether we name it.