Environmental activists are planning to get arrested during a show of civil disobedience on Parliament Hill on Sept. 26  ‘  but don’t know yet how they can remain peaceful and still get incarcerated.

Greenpeace, the Council of Canadians and the Indigenous Environmental Network are organizing a peaceful sit-in modeled after the ongoing Keystone Pipeline demonstrations in front of the White House, said Clayton Thomas-Muller, the tarsands campaign co-ordinator for the IEN.   

“The current lack of climate policy in this country, the commitment to dirty energy and marketing that dirty energy all over the world calls for citizens of Canada to step up and put their bodies on the line, so to speak,” said Thomas-Muller.

Thomas-Muller said their goal of getting arrested is part of the tradition of the civil-rights movement, but organizers don’t know exactly what they’re going do to accomplish it.

“We don’t really have that particular piece outlined at this point, given that the majority of Hill sit-ins are perfectly legal in our country. So, the actual scenario for how folks are going to be getting arrested hasn’t been done,” said Thomas-Muller.