The Center for Protest Law and Litigation is demanding that police and government officials at the site of the Line 3 pipeline expansion in Aitkin County, MN and the City of Palisade immediately cease efforts to obstruct and stop an event scheduled for Saturday, February 6 on local public parkland consisting of peaceful free speech, educational and religious activities intended to provide information to the public about just transitions for a sustainable future and the extreme dangers the pipeline poses to the community.
Local officials have illegally and unconstitutionally sought to “deny” access to the public park and have directly threatened and retaliated against the organizers of the event, who include Winona LaDuke, an Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe) enrolled member of the Mississippi Band Anishinaabe; Tania Aubid, a resident of Aitkin County, and a member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe; Gaylene Spolarich, a resident of Palisade, and a member of Turtle Mountain Band as well as former City Clerk for Palisade; and Shania Matteson, a non-Indigenous resident of Palisade.
The letter to the Aitkin County’s Sheriff and Land Commissioner, and Palisade’s Mayor and City Clerk, from CPLL’s director, constitutional rights lawyer Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, states: “Basic First Amendment rights are being deprived at the whim and direction of entities and officials, armed with the power of the state, serving essentially as private security of a private corporation [Enbridge] whose profit interests lie in suppressing and demonizing opposition to their activities – including suppressing educational events that can impact the public’s understanding of their dangerous pipeline.”