Day of Action in Hamilton

A group of environmentalists in Hamilton staged a day of action today.

They’re trying to win support for their stand that oil trains and oil pipelines are dangerous for our communities.

They’re trying to win public support and at the same time tackle the federal government. They’re fighting the government’s efforts to ship more oil to market from the oil sands in northern Alberta.

“Protect our climate. Protect our climate.”

The protesters shouted Saturday afternoon with a mock up of a freight train made up of oil tankers and driven by a Prime Minister who promotes the Alberta oil sands.

They took their message to the Federal Government’s main building in the city.

One of their concerns is the possibility of another Lac Megantic disaster of exploding train cars carrying oil.

Environmentalist, Don McLean says, “We need to defend our communities and defend our climate and in Hamilton’s situation one of the key pieces is oil trains running through our city.”

The protesters also say Canada should stop focusing on shipping and burning oil for fuel and think instead about energy alternatives and turning around climate change.

And even more concerns about oil pipelines like Line 9 in Northern Hamilton.

Environmentalist, Jim Quinn elaborated, “we do not need pipelines. what we need is another source of energy. we need another source of economy and we need to be building our green economy.”

They say it won’t be easy to cut off oil use, but Canada can’t keep going in the direction it’s going in.

As part of a national day of action to defend the climate, they say protesters were planning to make the same in demonstrations in 100 cities across Canada on Saturday, May 10th.