It was the kind of in-your-face protest that has been the group's hallmark for more than three decades. It had the feel of ritual. The Ontario Provincial Police pretty much knew what was afoot when Greenpeace made it known the Arctic Sunrise would visit Lake Erie. Police and an official from Ontario Power Generation, which owns the Nanticoke station, boarded the vessel just before it left the Welland Canal to enter the lake and warned the group not to trespass.
Police and Coast Guard boats and a helicopter kept the group under close surveillance for several days and accompanied the protesters to the freighter. But neither they, nor the freighter's crew, made any attempt to stop the Greenpeace action. Likewise, the protesters, circling in their four small craft, didn't interfere with the arrests.
Still the tactic remains valid, said Greenpeace spokesperson Jose Higginson.
"The core of the Greenpeace mission is non-violent direct action ... identifying environmental harm and standing in its way.
"You'll see a lot of interest in this type of action; it's exciting. And it lets us encapsulate the environmental harm being done."
And, she said, "it's not a coincidence that our ship is here in time for the election campaign."
Perhaps this will put pressure on the governing Liberals to follow through on their promises. If they had followed through on their first promise, the protest wouldn't have even taken place as the plants would be scheduled for close at the end of this year. Can McGuinty be arrested for lying to Ontarians?
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