New student coalition promises to block pipelines at Quebec border

MONTREAL, Nov. 6, 2014 /CNW Telbec/ - A new coalition of Quebec student associations is launching today, with a mandate to block any and all pipelines at the provincial border.

Étudiant-e-s Contre les Oléoducs (ECO) already represented almost 70,000 Quebec students before today's launch. That's a figure organizers expect to increase rapidly in the lead up to a November 15th protest called by the group.

ECO is the latest player to enter the heated fight against Transcanada's Energy East pipeline, and the reversal of Enbridge's line 9B, currently being waged by dozens of communities across Quebec, and the First Nations on the front line.

"Among our students there is a tremendous appetite for doing what is necessary to stop climate change," said ECO spokesperson, and Concordia Student Union VP External, Anthony Garoufalis-Auger. "This coalition seeks to unite the Quebec student movement, the most powerful such movement in North America, behind a simple message: these pipelines will not pass."

ECO hopes to shut down the tar sands by blocking the export of oil through Quebec, much as environmental opposition has already delayed proposed pipelines to British Columbia and the United States.

ECO supports all forms of non-violent action to block pipelines and fossil fuel extraction projects. The Coalition plans to send a clear message to oil companies and their investors: students will not sit idly by while they continue to wreak havoc on the environment and threaten the future of our planet.

The campaign kicks off with a protest on November 15 in Montreal, leaving from Place Norman-Bethune at the corner of Guy and De Maisonneuve West at 1 PM. L'Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ) has endorsed the demonstration and both they and Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ), Quebec's other main student federation, oppose the pipelines.

"The science doesn't get any clearer," added Julie Chamberland, ECO spokesperson and member of the executive of the Fédération étudiante de l'Université de Sherbrooke (FEUS). "Our leaders are betraying our future. To accept that betrayal without a fight would be nothing short of suicidal."

More details about ECO and its mission can be found on www.coalitioneco.org.

SOURCE: Concordia Student Union

For more information, or to schedule an interview or photo-op, please contact: English: Ethan Cox at [phone], French: Jérémie Bédard at [phone]