Enbridge Line 9 protesters scale tower in Port of Montreal

Activists scaled a 20-metre-high tower overlooking the CP rail yard at the Port of Montreal Monday morningto unfurl a banner protesting Enbridge'sLine 9pipeline.

The demonstrators say they're worried about the impact of trains transportingoil from Montreal across Quebecto a New Brunswickport.

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"These trains go in the heart of a lot of communities across Quebec," said protesterNicolas Ouellet.

"One spill of these trains in our communities, it's a second Lac-Mgantic."

Line 9, which runs betweenSarnia, Ont.,and Montreal, is a 40-year-old pipeline that's part of a largerplan ofCalgary-basedEnbridgeto transport more crude from Western Canada to refineries in Eastern Canada. The refined oil products could thenpotentially be exported to foreignmarkets.

The pipeline originally flowed in a west-to-east direction in the 1970s, but that was reversed in the late 1990s in response to changing market conditions. NowEnbridge wants to reverse it again.

The National Energy Board approved the reversal of Line 9B,a 639-kilometre section of the pipelinethat runs fromNorth Westover, Ont., to Montreal, in March 2014.

The pipeline was to have started up in November, but was delayed when the federal energy regulator flagged concerns about the protection of water crossings along the route.

Although the company insists Line 9 has operated safely throughout its history, there's been local opposition to Enbridge's plans to ship more oil eastward due to concern about the risk of a major spill into water supplies.

Montreal police officers were on the scene ofthismorning's demonstration, but said they had no jurisdiction to make arrests because the rail yard is the responsibility of rail police.

They said they would hand over the file to their rail counterparts.