HALIFAX—Ellen Page is putting her full support behind water protectors at the Alton Gas site.

Page, a Hollywood actress who is from Halifax, along with filmmaker Ian Daniel, visited grassroots grandmothers at the Shubenacadie River on Saturday to work on what is said to be a documentary about environmental racism.

Page took to Instagram late Monday to share a picture of her and grassroots grandmother Dorene Bernard holding signs and a drum at the Alton Gas site, located about an hour outside of Halifax.

“Humbled and honoured to have spent time with the extraordinary Dorene Bernard and other grassroots grandmothers and water protectors to learn more about how they are protecting the water and land from Alton Gas and the Nova Scotia Government and the best ways to support,” Page wrote in the post.

Page first posted about Alton Gas weeks ago, when she shared a link to a GoFundMe aimed at raising money toward legal fees for water protectors on her Instagram and Twitter accounts.

She shared the link to the fundraiser again on Monday, encouraging her followers to donate to the cause.

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Water protectors are concerned that the Alton Gas project, which plans to create underground caverns to store natural gas, will lead to 3,000 tonnes of hard salt being dumped into the Shubenacadie River.

Last Wednesday, three grassroots grandmothers were arrested at the Alton Gas site for refusing to comply with an injunction order demanding they leave the long-standing resistance camp near the site’s main gate. All three women were released from the Enfield RCMP detachment later Wednesday afternoon without charges.

Dorene Bernard was among the water protectors gathered at the RCMP detachment to support the arrested grandmothers.

Bernard said she hopes to see Page and Daniel at the Alton Gas site again.

This is not the first time Page has been vocal about issues affecting her home province. In December, Page weighed in on the Northern Pulp Mill’s plan to dump treated waste into the Northumberland Strait.

In other Alton Gas news Tuesday, a video was posted to Facebook showing bulldozers tearing down the Strawbale House that Indigenous water protectors used at its treaty camp near the Shubenacadie River for the past several years.

“They said they were going to come in and take down the fence over here, instead they sent them in to destroy the Strawbale House. While we were over at the river … the trucks came and destroyed the strawbale within minutes,” Bernard said in a Facebook Live video on Tuesday afternoon.

In the video, a bulldozer could be seen destroying the roof of the house.

“We are still going to be here, we are still going to be standing in front of this project. If I have to walk by this fence with my signs every day,” Bernard was heard telling what appeared to be security in the video.

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Lori MacLean, a spokesperson for AltaGas—the Calgary-based company energy company spearheading the Alton Gas project— told the Star in an email statement that the company is preparing the work site for safe access.

“One of the first steps is a safety assessment of the work site, as there has been flooding and associated damage, and repairs will need to be done. These repairs are critical to ensure the safety of the site,” she said in the email.

The company hired movers to catalog and remove items from the site, as well as carpenters and electricians to dismantle the truck house and return items like solar equipment to the water protectors.

The preparations also include removing the built structures near the worksite.

“Other work at the site will allow teams to safely enter with equipment, and the installation of property fencing will be completed. The community can expect to see people and trucks with equipment come and go from the site.”

Correction—April 16, 2019: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said the Treaty Truck House at the Alton Gas site had been taken down Tuesday. In fact, it was the StrawBale House bulldozed down.

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