Nearly a thousand people gathered Monday on Parliament Hill in front of the Centennial Flame to protest the Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport tar sands crude oil to Texas. Organized by the Council of Canadians, Greenpeace Canada, and the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), the solidarity rally drew participants ready to risk arrest, by attempting a sit-in in the Centre Block or by supporting those engaging in civil disobedience.

Before the main event, several high-profile speakers addressed the crowd. Clayton Thomas-Muller, indigenous tar sands organizer for the IEN, kicked off the event by thanking the Algonquin First Nation for use of the "unceded land" on which lies the parliamentary buildings. First Nation Elder Terry McKay then led the gathering in prayer to the Creator, followed by a drum song.

"It [the pipeline] is a no-brainer and Harper's got no brains."

"Justice!" resounded all around as, to fire up the crowd, Thomas-Muller called, "What are we here for?"

Representing Greenpeace Canada and the Lubicon Cree First Nation, Melina Laboucan-Massimo said her family is also ill, but from the Albertan oil spill that was left unreported for five days last spring, until the federal election had passed. Her voice quivered at times as she enumerated her relatives' symptoms, lamenting that a few individuals are profiting from their pain. Echoing Lepine, Laboucan-Massimo asserted, "This behind me is the House of Commons, not the House of Corporations."

Former Senate page Brigitte DePape was there representing the Youth Climate Justice Coalition, which DePape revealed is organizing a tribunal to put the Harper government on trial. "This is where change is happening," DePape told the protesters, saying she was happy to be standing with them and "not in there", pointing behind her to Parliament. DePape's parting message was to "organize together for another possible Canada".

Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow referred to an imaginary map depicting current and proposed pipelines, and said, "It looks like a corporate snakes and ladders board game."

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"In my opinion," said Barlow, "the people crossing the line today are not breaking the law. The people breaking the law are the Harper government." Barlow cited the Fisheries Act, the Kyoto Protocol, the UN Declaration on the Human Right to Water, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

"Today we stand on the face of change," Thomas-Muller had told the crowd.