Lee Heidhues 9.2.2023
A shameful prosecution against American women who are literally putting their bodies on the line to save planet earth.
Here’s a story buried by the American mainstream media. A pipeline protestor in Minnesota has been convicted for obstructing construction of an environmentally destructive pipeline apparatus. A section of the notorious tar sands oil pipeline was the site of ongoing and rigorous protests in North Dakota.
On January 20, 2021, United States President Joe Biden revoked the permit for the pipeline on his first day in office.
On June 9, 2021, the Keystone XL project was abandoned by its developer. At the time of the project’s cancellation, approximately 8% of the pipeline had been constructed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_Pipeline
Mylene Vialard, 54, was found guilty after a Minnesota trial beset by legal irregularities after protesters efforts to block a fossil fuel pumping station.
Excerpted from The Guardian 9.2.2023
A non-violent environmental activist has been found guilty of felony obstruction for her role in trying to halt construction of a fossil fuel pipeline through Indigenous territory in Minnesota, in a trial beset by legal irregularities which ended with the prosecutor demanding jail time.
“Jury returned a guilty verdict on felony obstruction, following a trial in which the prosecution engaged in repeated, flagrant and intentional misconduct throughout the trial and during closing arguments … the court turned a blind eye to the legal violations of law enforcement and the prosecutor, as well as its own legal errors, at the expense of Ms Vialard’s constitutional rights in this trial,” said Claire Glenn, Vialard’s attorney from the Climate Defense Project.
Mylene Vialard, 54, was arrested in August 2021 after attaching herself to a 25ft bamboo tower erected to block a pumping station in Aitkin county, northern Minnesota.
Her arrest was part of a crackdown on non-violent Indigenous-led protests opposing the expansion and rerouting on Line 3 – a 1,097-mile tar sands oil pipeline with a dismal safety record, that crosses more than 200 water bodies from Alberta, Canada, to refineries in the US midwest.
“Mylene’s guidelines are presumptive 12 months and a day stayed, meaning the judge is expected to give her 366 days probation. If the prosecutor wants anything more serious than that, there are specific showings he must make to justify that request. But he asked for 366 days executed with no justification, which is illegal for him to do,” Glenn added.
The Aitkin county prosecutor, Garrett Slyva, who is reportedly under investigation for alleged misconduct in North Dakota, has been contacted for comment.
Vialard was among more than a thousand arrests by Minnesota law enforcement – which along with other agencies received at least $8.6m in payments from the Canadian company Enbridge behind Line 3.
Overall, at least 967 criminal charges were filed including several people charged under the state’s new critical infrastructure protection legislation – approved as part of a wave of anti-protest laws inspired by the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), a rightwing group backed by fossil fuel companies.
Earlier this week, Jill Ferguson, a 70-year-old grandmother from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was found guilty of obstructing legal process (interference with a peace office), a misdemeanor, and sentenced to two days in prison with time served for her role in a protest in July 2021 in Clearwater county.
“I am guilty,” Ferguson told the Guardian. “Guilty of protecting the headwaters of the Mississippi river, so this is a badge of honor.”
Ferguson suffered a concussion during the arrest, and continues to experience chronic physical and psychological effects from the trauma
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/02/mylene-vialard-us-pipeline-protester-convicted
Top photo: Minnesota cops detain protesters – Summer 2021
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