CORNWALL, Ontario – Protesters that chained themselves to a natural gas pipeline valve station northeast of the city have been removed, says the owners of the facility.
Graham White, a spokesperson for Enbridge, said in an email to Seaway News the protesters were removed from the site Monday afternoon.
“We are anticipating a return to service by later tonight with no impacts anticipated to deliveries,” White added.
Earlier a pair of protesters had used what appeared to be u-shaped bike locks to secure their necks to the valve, which is part of a controversial pipeline Enbridge has announced it will use to flow oil from southwestern Ontario to Montreal.
The pipeline runs directly through the Cornwall area.
Witness Norm Genier said in an interview protesters informed him they had been on the scene since before dawn, to draw attention to the project they think could have dire environmental consequences.
“Two of the guys were chained by their necks to the valve of the pipeline,” Genier said, adding a third had chained himself to a fence that surrounds the valve station. “It didn’t look like they could move.”
Genier estimated a little more than a dozen protesters are at the scene, located near Dalhousie Mills which sits right on the Quebec-Ontario border, about a 45-minute drive from Cornwall.
Genier said Surete de Quebec police were also at the scene, with about six officers.
This would not be the first protest concering the Line 9 Pipeline plan by Enbridge, but is the closest to Cornwall. Protesters marched through the streets of Montreal in October to highlight concerns with the plan.
