Line 3 Opponents Allege ‘Blockade’ of Camp in Property Dispute
Northern Minnesota sheriffs offices have blocked a route to a major protest camp, citing a 1928 tax forfeiture.
Activists occupy construction equipment at an Enbridge Line 3 pump station near Park Rapids, Minn., on Monday, June 7, 2021. (Evan Frost/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
MENAHGA, Minn. (CN) A new lawsuit alleges that a rural Minnesota county and its sheriff’s office have escalated a property dispute as a pretext to blockade, harass and incriminate opponents of the controversial Line 3 oil pipeline, which is a characterization disputed by the sheriff himself.
The suit, filed in Hubbard County District Court Friday afternoon, alleges that the northern Minnesota county’s sheriff, Corwin Aukes, has used a dispute over an easement issue to blockade a property where many pipeline opponents have camped in recent months. Law enforcement officials from the Hubbard County Sheriff’s Office and other agenci