On the other hand, we have climate change and Native rights extremists who have found common cause in the recent controversy over the gas pipeline that has been approved for British Columbia. While concerns about climate change are understandable, it is ironic that in their efforts to stop this pipeline project from proceeding, the protesters may prevent this energy source from getting to Asia where it would reduce reliance on coal – a particularly harmful fuel.
Even more extreme are some Native leaders and their supporters. It doesn’t matter that all elected Native Band councils along the pipeline in B.C. support the project and the economic benefits to them. The position of these councils is dismissed as illegitimate, since the councils are a creation of the federal government and are, goes the argument, an artificial construct that is part of the subjugation of Natives. Instead, we are told that the only valid voice is that of hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en tribe, and they are opposed to the pipeline which, they claim, runs through an extensive territory to which they claim title, one dramatically larger than the area found within the jurisdiction of Native band councils.
As if things weren’t bad enough, we have all sorts of protesters joining in the fray. What I fail to understand is how the strangling of the Canadian economy, through rolling railway blockades, and the attendant decline in government revenues, is supposed to lead to increased financial support for Natives and for the environment. Moreover, whatever legal standing hereditary chiefs may have over certain lands in British Columbia does not, in any way, justify illegal and criminal activities by those who not only block the trains but toss burning tires on the tracks as they approach. Why is this tolerated? Why aren’t the law-breakers in jail?
Let’s Make a Deal?
The federal government announced recently that it has reached an agreement with the hereditary chiefs, subject to their review, consultation, and approval. While details have not been released, what is known suggests more of a federal capitulation than a deal – since the latter would normally involve some give and take on both sides. From what we know at this point, the federal government has agreed to accept that the Wet’suwet’en Nation has jurisdiction of some 22,000 square kilometres in Northern B.C. In return, the federal government receives (and requested) … nothing. To put this in perspective, this Nation with a total of 3,200 members now presides over an area four times as large as Prince Edward Island.
It is difficult to understand how this deal will in any way resolve the crisis that has been strangling the Canadian economy and revealing it to be “not open for business.” To the contrary, we can now expect even more aggressive resistance to any developments that cross this large area of B.C. It is also logical to expect emboldened supporters of native rights and defenders of the environment to intensify their blockades and disruption of the Canadian economy. Why should they feel any need for moderation after this total capitulation by the federal government?
Extremists in Alberta threaten separation from Canada. The impending deal accepted by the federal government apparently accepts that a large portion of Northern B.C. is essentially a separate Wet’suwet’en Nation, governed by its own historic laws. Will Quebec decide that it might as well join in and revive its separation agenda? I fear that this is not going to end well, unless the extremists on all sides step back from the brink.