UPDATE: Watch the Action Video
UPDATE 4:30PM – Cherri has been released from jail on a $2,500 bail
Demonstrate your support for Cherri for defending our coasts with a donation to her bail fund.
Cherri and Tar Sands Blockade stands in solidarity with the Defend Our Coast actions today in British Columbia: http://defendourcoast.ca/actions/
UPDATE 3:30PM – Cherri’s Bail is set at $2,500. We expect her out within an hour.
She’s being charged with Class A Misdemeanor Criminal Trespass of a Habitation/Shelter/Superfund/Infrastructure… This is a new one for us. There are obviously some special designations attached to this charge. We’ll chat with our lawyers and send some details soon.
UPDATE 1:00PM – Cherri is expected to see a judge before the day ends – Donate to her bail
Demonstrate your support Cherri’s action to defend our coast and stand with indigenous and affected communities with a donation to her bail fund.
UPDATE 11:00AM – Cherri was threatened with Felony Use of a Criminal Instrument…
…for using chains and locks anyone could purchase from a hardware store. Confirmation of charges pending.
In the mean time, check out Cherri’s blog and watch her Why We Blockade Testimonial Video:
UPDATE 10:00AM – Cherri Has Been Arrested After Two Sheriffs Cut Her Chains with Bolt Cutters
UPDATE 9:40AM – TransCanada Workers Threatening to Cut Cherri’s Chain with a Grinder
UPDATE 9:35AM – Two Titus County Sheriffs Arrive – Talking About Cutting Chain
UPDATE 9:30AM – Six Huge Trucks Delayed From Keystone XL Pipeyard by Cherri’s Action
UPDATE 8:30AM – Cherri Chains Herself Keystone XL Pipeyard Gate
___
WINFIELD, TEXAS – WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2012 – Drawing connections to all coastal communities threatened by toxic tar sands development, Cherri Foytlin, an indigenous South Louisiana mother of six and wife of a Gulf Coast oilfield worker, chained herself to the gate of a Keystone XL pipeyard. Effectively blocking pipe from being shipped to construction sites along the controversial pipeline’s route, Foytlin’s action coincides with the Defend Our Coast activities in British Columbia, where more than 60 Canadian communities are protesting a proposed tar sands pipeline through their region. Hers marks the 32nd arrest since Tar Sands Blockade’s actions began over two months ago and today marks the 31st day of sustained protest at its Winnsboro tree blockade.
“This pipeline is a project of death. From destructive tar sands development that destroy indigenous sovereignty and health at the route’s start to the toxic emissions that will lay further burden on environmental justice communities along the Gulf of Mexico, this pipeline not only disproportionately affects indigenous frontline communities but its clear that it will bring death and disease to all in its path,” Foytlin declared.
Refusing to accept the Gulf Coast’s designation as the Nation’s Energy Sacrifice Zone, Foytlin, along with many Gulf Coast residents and indigenous activists are dismayed but not surprised to find the conversations regarding Keystone XL as a whole from national environmental groups to the Presidential campaigns have made little to no mention of the damage TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline will heap upon Gulf Coast communities like Houston and Port Arthur, TX, where Keystone XL will terminate. Already overburdened with oil refineries and other dirty energy related industry, this neglectful attitude dovetails neatly with TransCanada’s reckless disregard for the health and safety of families in the refinery communities and elsewhere along the pipeline’s route.
The Rayne, Louisiana resident, who in the Spring of 2011 walked 1,243 miles from New Orleans to Washington D.C. as a call for action to stop the BP Drilling Disaster, has been a constant voice speaking out for the health and ecosystems of Gulf Coast communities.
She continued, “This fight is also about the personal freedoms given to us through the blood of all of our combined ancestry. Conservatives believe government is too big, that they are choking out our freedoms. The Occupy Movement believes corporations have kidnapped those same rights in the pursuit of profit over humanity. I believe both groups are right, and this pipeline and the use of eminent domain by a foreign company to seize and lay claim to American land, aided by the silence of the government, is an epic example of those truths.”
Tar Sands Blockade is a coalition of Texas and Oklahoma landowners and climate justice organizers using peaceful and sustained civil disobedience to stop the construction of TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
“From the Pacific Coast to the Gulf Coast, Tar Sands Blockade acts in solidarity with all communities and indigenous people rising up to defend their homes from toxic tar sands pipelines. The refinery communities of the Gulf Coast have historically been and continue to be treated as collateral damage by industry and now landowners from Canada to Texas are learning that reality, too,” stated Ramsey Sprague, a Tar Sands Blockade spokesperson born in Houma, Louisiana to a Chitimacha family. “From start to finish, tar sands development only further endangers communities already at far greater risk for death and disease from toxic environmental exposure to human-made chemical pollutants than communities further away from the petroleum refineries and the unconscionable mining operations that define their origins.”
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Breaking: Gulf Coast mother chains herself to Keystone XL pipe yard gate, blocks trucks | Climate Connections
October 24, 2012 at 11:38 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] 24, 2012. Source: Tar Sands Blockade Photo: Tar Sands [...]
Keystone XL Blockade: Defending the Land from Tar Sands Oil | WilderUtopia.com
October 24, 2012 at 4:22 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] water, arrested journalists, and subjected blockades to 24/7 surveillance and floodlights. Activist Cherri Foytlin: “This pipeline is a project of death. From destructive tar sands development that destroy [...]
Thousands Join in Defending North America from Toxic Tar Sands | Cascade Climate Network
October 24, 2012 at 7:34 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] Watch Cherri Foytlin’s tar sands blockade testimony video or follow the blog about the action at http://tarsandsblockade.org/10th-action/. [...]
VIDEO: Solidarity from the Pacific Coast of Canada to the Gulf Coast of Texas » Tar Sands Blockade
October 24, 2012 at 8:15 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] « Gulf Coast Oilfield Wife, Mother of 6, Cherri Foytlin Chains Self to Keystone XL Pipeyard Gate [...]
Breaking: Gulf Coast mother chains herself to Keystone XL pipe yard gate, blocks trucks | Mobilization for Climate Justice
October 25, 2012 at 4:09 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] October 24, 2012. Source: Tar Sands Blockade [...]
Making It Happen! | Storm Surge
October 25, 2012 at 8:10 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] individual efforts to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline and the Defend of the Coast movement, click here. MoreLike this:LikeBe the first to like this. This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged [...]
Stopping The Trans Canada’s Keystone XL Pipeline: Activism from the Trees and on the Ground
October 25, 2012 at 1:42 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] Share this press release with your media [...]
Re-post: On My Arrest at the Tar Sands Blockade | The Oyster Knife
October 25, 2012 at 5:37 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] their vision for a just, healthy and sustainable future.” On Wednesday, October 24, 2012, Cherri was arrested after sheriff’s cut the chains she used to chain herself to the Keystone XL Pipeyard Gate in [...]
Stopping Trans Canada’s Keystone XL Pipeline–Activism from the Trees and on the Ground « Set You Free News
October 26, 2012 at 7:05 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] Share this press release with your media [...]
» Louisiana Woman Arrested After Chaining Herself to Keystone XL Pipe Yard Gate Mutiny Radio
November 6, 2012 at 2:15 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] her arrest, the Tar Sands Blockade put up a post that included some details on Foytlin. She is from southern Louisiana. After the BP Gulf oil [...]
Manchester: An Environmental Battleground « Earth First! Newswire
December 31, 2012 at 12:12 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] children collected and donated by Cherri Foytlin. Cherri, an indigenous woman, and mother of six, chained herself to a Keystone XL Pipeyard gate on October 24th, a Tar Sands Blockade action. [...]
Manchester community puts new demands on Valero, Hunger Strike 29 days in » Tar Sands Blockade
December 31, 2012 at 4:26 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] donated by Cherri Foytlin. Cherri, a Tar Sands Blockader, an indigenous woman, and mother of six, chained herself to a Keystone XL Pipeyard gate on October 24th. “From destructive tar sands development that [...]
Houston Community fights Tar Sands Criminals « The Free
January 1, 2013 at 1:36 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] children collected and donated by Cherri Foytlin. Cherri, an indigenous woman, and mother of six, chained herself to a Keystone XL Pipeyard gate on October 24th, a Tar Sands Blockade [...]