Bruce MacKinnon’s editorial cartoon for Feb. 21, 2020.
Like you, I’ve been watching the protest blockades this week and feeling more and more annoyed.
But strangely, I wasn’t sure who or what exactly was getting my goat.
Was it the RCMP for occupying unceded First Nations lands in British Columbia?
Not exactly.
Was it the First Nations hereditary chiefs for demanding the RCMP get off their land so they could have a say on who puts gas pipelines there?
Not really.
Is it the protesters thousands of miles away who were strangling a nation’s transportation grid by blocking trains in solidarity with the hereditary chiefs?
A bit, yes, but that wasn’t the thing that was bugging me the most.
And then it occurred to me. Do you know who was really making me angry? Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It’s not just that he spent the first days of this protest swanning around in Africa putting on the diplomatic charm offensive to get Canada a seat on the United Nations Security Council.
That didn’t help, but it’s more than that.
And it’s not just the question of whether he did or didn’t enforce court injunctions to end blockades.
What’s bothering me is that he should have seen this whole train wreck coming a mile away. It was a locomotive steaming down the tracks towards us.
We’ve heard Trudeau talk about his commitment to Aboriginal issues and how reconciliation is the most important issue of his prime ministership.
Great.
So how could he let something like this happen? And then let it ratchet up to the point it has?
He should have been talking with Aboriginal communities on pipeline routes, negotiating and figuring out how he was going to combine reconciliation with running the country.
If there was going to be a problem — and there obviously was — he should have been anticipating it right from the word “go” when he came into office with an agenda of reconciliation.
These hereditary chiefs in B.C. are not just making this stuff up. They have a 1997 Supreme Court of Canada decision to back up their claims. If there is no treaty, the land is unceded. They have to be consulted about what happens on their lands.
Even if the elected chiefs and some other hereditary chiefs are in favour of this particular pipeline because it will produce jobs and prosperity, there are important constitutional principles at stake.
And now people are losing their jobs because we can’t get exports out or imports in. Container lines are diverting cargo to other ports.
Propane rations are hammering made-in-Nova-Scotia businesses like Acadian Seaplants. How are we going to get the cars out of the autoport, Michelin tires sent out to markets and P.E.I. frozen french fries exported?
And then we end up with fingers being pointed in all directions, accusations being made, jobs being lost, First Nations communities being divided and an economy held at ransom to this whole mess.
Is this really the prime minister’s vision of reconciliation?
I doubt it, but here we are.
Reconciliation is not just a word. It’s a historic challenge that required the prime minister himself to get out to those unceded lands a long time ago, roll up his sleeves, sit around the coffee table all day and all night and work things out with his Aboriginal partners in reconciliation — before something like this happened.
But he didn’t. And even if he gets the trains rolling this time, this thing isn’t over. It will happen again in one way or another because Trudeau didn’t do his homework. SOURCE
County Sustainability Group 