It's been nearly 70 years since construction finished on what we now know as the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline. For decades, the pipeline has been sending oil from western Canada to Sarnia for refining. 

And it did so largely outside the attention of most Canadians. 

But that changed when Michigan Governer Gretchen Whitmer gave Enbridge a deadline to shut the pipeline down. 

That deadline came and went this week, with Enbridge saying that it will not shut the line down without a court order. 

So why is the battle over this pipeline so important?

That's what the Blackburn News Podcast set out to learn in this episode, hosted by Craig Needles.