On this Labor Day weekend, during a summer of floods & wildfires, we serve to amplify the voices of water protector Mylene Vialard and indigenous activist/ attorney Tara Houska.

In August of 2021, Mylene Vialard was one of a group of non-violent water protectors to put their bodies on the line in the indigenous-led resistance movement to stop Enbridge Line 3. 

As she writes, “In the face of the climate crisis, I went up to Line 3 inspired by my 20 year old daughter, who went before I did and put her body on the line. I’m fighting for her future and for the future of all our children. As a settler in the US, I’m also fighting for our systems to honor Indigenous treaty rights. The Line 3 fight isn’t over, I’m standing in solidarity with all these frontline resistance efforts by continuing this Line 3 action in court.”

Excerpts from a recent interview:

I could not sign the paper saying that I was guilty, because I am not the guilty party here. Enbridge is destroying, is violent. The just destroying the land to put a pipeline that we know is going to leak is violence against the Earth, the water, the people who live on this land and depend on that. So, yeah, I could not take the plea deal. I am not guilty.

And if the state wants to prove me guilty, then they have to do that, which so far has not happened. And yet, I’m still here fighting. I’m still in court. I’m going to testify today. And even Sheriff Guida, who extracted us in the most careless manner, has not been able to prove or has not said that I was doing anything wrong up there. I’m a nonviolent activist. I believe in nonviolence. Everything I do that’s my daily life is nonviolent. So, you know, I was up there. I was not obstructing legal process, which is the charge I got. I was just up there protesting an abomination. […]

I wouldn’t say that I’m afraid. I entered this fully aware of the risk I was taking, and not really believing that the justice system in this court would be served, would be hearing me fully. So, I am aware of what I’m risking, and I’m going — I’m going there fully aware of the risk, but I’m not scared. I know where I stand. I know what my purpose is here. I am grateful for you for hearing us today.  […]

My T-shirt says “Defend the Sacred.” This is the T-shirt I was wearing on that day. This is why I was there. The sacred is the Earth, the nature, the water, the people who live on this land, and all the animals and Earth.

Activist/lawyer Tara Houska, also arrested on that day, asks the fundamental question:

We think about the words “critical infrastructure.” What is actually critical infrastructure to the survival of human beings and every other being on this Earth? It’s water, right?That is the actual critical infrastructure. Designating an oil pipeline for fossil fuels bound somewhere else, the active destruction of our own chance at survival, of my daughter’s chances of survival, at her, at her daughter, it is just an abomination of where we’re at as a species. You mentioned all those, you know, increasing signs of climate crisis that is occurring, talking about the global boiling. Right? We’re not even saying “global warming” anymore. It’s global boiling. And species extinction is just so painful to watch.

And then, you know, you have these attempts by human beings against other human beings who are trying to at least give nature a voice, at least trying to do something different, actively pushing against and trying to suppress that voice, where you see and hear in Minnesota, instead of the company behind closed doors paying off law enforcement to defend their pipeline and defend their project, it was an open agreement, overseen by the state of Minnesota, overseen by the Democratic government, overseen by Tim Walz and Peggy Flanagan here in Minnesota. You know, that still stands. They paid them over $8 million, closing in on $9 million.

The biggest acceptor — the biggest person that accepted the money, like, or the agency that accepted that money was the Department of Natural Resources. That’s the people who are tasked, actually, to defend the wetlands, which just got deregulated, right? Like, all the nation’s wetlands just got deregulated, because the EPA no longer has oversight. That’s what’s happening. And that’s the global picture that’s happening, not just here but around the world, where land defenders are not just criminalized, they’re killed, for defending the Earth.

Note: Ms. Vialard has been found guilty of felony obstruction, subject to appeal. Following the verdict she made the following statement: “I did not get a fair trial and there were so many reasons for an acquittal and mistrial, this cannot be the justice system we have … I am not at all surprised by the verdict but I am surprised by the outrageous way the prosecution behaved.”

Her attorney added: “The 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.”

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