Jody Williams visits Ottawa to talk Women, Oil and Climate Change

Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams visited Ottawa last week to launch our newest report Breaking Ground: Women, Oil and Climate Change in Alberta and British Columbia and to bring the discussion on a sustainable environmental practices to Canada’s capital city.

Speaking at a panel discussion on October 27, Jody shared the stories of women she met on our 2012 Delegation to Alberta’s Tar Sands, and heard from local activists and residents who are concerned about plans for a pipeline proposal by TransCanada that would ship tar sands oil across Ottawa.

Jody Williams and the Nobel Women’s Initiative also joined the #TarFree613 campaign in visiting sites along the route of the proposed TransCanada Energy East pipeline. TransCanada is proposing to retrofit the natural gas pipeline to carry Tar Sands bitumen, leaving residents concerned about the potential of oil spills and other impacts on their community. Following the site visits, women came together in a roundtable discussion to brainstorm ideas for organizing against the pipeline proposals.

“We can get off our collective butts and take actions! Worrying about the Tar Sands is not a strategy for change.” – Jody Williams