Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands)
2021-06-04 11:03 [p.7966]

Madam Speaker, I rise this morning on a very sombre occasion. It is June 4, the first anniversary of the killing of a beautiful young mother and member of the community of the Nuu-chah-nulth. Chantel Moore was killed a year ago today. As I speak here, the hon. member for Fredericton is with Chantel Moore’s mother at a memorial service in Fredericton.

It has been a year since Chantel Moore was killed. We know the name of her killer. He is a member of the Edmundston, New Brunswick police force. He killed her on the threshold of her home. She was shot five times. This was in the course of a wellness check.

I am wearing yellow. It was Chantel Moore’s favourite colour. Her mother would like us to wear yellow for all of the indigenous people who have been shot, killed and injured by police forces across Canada.

Since Chantel’s killing, two more members of the same indigenous nation have been shot by the RCMP. This must stop. Let us fight for Chantel Moore, her memory and the truth.

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Speaker: Ms. May
Time: 15/04/2021 18:17:52
Context: Questions and Comments

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP): Madam Speaker, this may be my only opportunity to speak to the legislation before us.

I am deeply troubled by the fact that this government, which professes the high purposes of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples appears in practice to decide that free, prior and informed consent means to continue to coerce first nations until they give consent to a decision that has already been made. I refer to the Trans Mountain pipeline as an example, which the Government of Canada bought without conferring with first nations, as we should have done. It continues, as elected members of council of the first nation in my territory, which I am honoured to represent, the territory of the WSANEC Nation, have told me that the TMX, now a Crown corporation, comes to them offering money to try to get them to stop objecting. That is not free or prior consent, and yet that is what is being practised right now—

Arif Virani (Parkdale—High Park)
2021-04-15 18:19 [p.5712]

Madam Speaker, this is an important issue. It is an issue that is obviously a dynamic one and an issue that will be considered on an ongoing basis.
However, what I was about to relate from Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond I think captures the idea in response to the member’s question. She said, as counsel for the AFN, that “The idea that free, prior and informed consent is some kind of a veto is simply not supported, and that is not how it’s operationalized.” That is an important point to register.

With respect to the timing of the negotiations and the timing of the outreach to first nations communities, be they elected leaders, hereditary chiefs or other individuals, that is a very valid point that the member is raising, and something that we will continue to work on as a government and as all parliamentarians to ensure that this consultation is sought at the earliest possible opportunity.

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The post When will the government accept responsibility for the Indigenous people killed during “wellness checks”? appeared first on Elizabeth May.

Tomorrow is both Commonwealth Day and International Women’s Day – as well as the birthday of two dear friends – so a shout out to Amelia Clarke in Waterloo and my dear adopted mom Dorothy Cutting on Salt Spring Island!

International Women’s Day changed my life.  Forty-one years ago, March 8, 1980, my best friend, Liz Archibald Calder (now of White Rock, but then in Whycocomagh) convinced me we could do an amazing thing – and actually drive all the way into Sydney, Cape Breton to go to the pub for a big feminist party.   That’s a four-hour round trip and I did not routinely, or ever actually, visit pubs or, on reflection, do anything fun.   I had just run for parliament, starting the “small party” that was to become the Green Party.  I had spent the last five years of my life fighting the pulp mill and its plans to spray our forests with toxic insecticides. The pub! In Sydney! This was an amazing idea.

The headliner of the night was Rita MacNeil. In those days, Rita was not THE Rita MacNeil. She was a politically radical singer with a small fan base of radical feminists- all the way to Toronto where people loved her.  It would be a number of years before she became the more grandmotherly CBC Christmas special version of herself.  That night she was barefoot on stage and belting out, “Tell it like it is, Sisters.”

At some point in the festivities, a slightly inebriated woman lawyer introduced herself saying she had heard me debating the pulp company executives in the media. “You know, you should really be a lawyer- go to law school.”  And I said the truth – that I had always wanted to be a lawyer, but that I didn’t even have an undergrad degree and I was pretty stuck waitressing and cooking in my parents’ restaurant.

And what she said next was what changed my life – “You don’t need an undergrad degree…at your age and with your work fighting budworm spraying, you should apply as a mature student.”

The next day I phoned Dalhousie Law School and spoke to the admissions department. I had only two weeks to pull together an application.  By September, I was sitting at a desk in a lecture hall – still waitressing and cooking in the summers. as I worked my way through law school.

I sometimes wonder what course my life would have taken if not for that International Women’s Day celebration. Not to mention that if not for the women’s movement, it is unlikely law schools would have opened the door to mature students.  It was an innovation intended to increase the number of women in a mostly male profession.

Now I am one of 100 women MPs in Parliament.  It took 100 years to reach the first hundred women MPs, with Agnes McPhail being the first in 1921. Since October 2020, we have one hundred all serving together!

Changing my celebratory tone, apologies for more bad news.  In reflecting on the last week, I am drawn back to the perennial, inescapable reality of systemic racism in Canadian law enforcement. I have been following the shocking story of the brutal treatment of a young doctoral student from Guinea, falsely arrested by the Montreal police. Thank God they didn’t kill him – but given the abuse Mamadi Fara Camera endured, they well might have done.

Closer to home, another indigenous man was killed last weekend on a “wellness check.”

The killing at the hands of Tofino RCMP happened on Meares Island in the Opitsaht community within the Nuu-chah-nulth Nation. That is the same nation devastated by the June shooting of Chantel Moore by Edmundston, N.B. police.  Chantel Moore was also killed in a “wellness” check.  The investigation into her killing by the Quebec police oversight body was given to the New Brunswick government in December. The family has been denied any details.

I have been working with Judith Sayers, president of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, and a group of Senators to try to open a set of committee hearings into the killing of indigenous peoples during “wellness checks.”

Paul Manly, Jenica Atwin and I are determined to get answers.   It is beyond unacceptable that more people in the Nuu-chah-nulth Nation have been killed by police than due to COVID.

Closing with some good news. (My daughter wrote me that she had found the last GSM particularly depressing – apologies to all!)

In response to my rant last week about the fake “big win” on climate, Christa Grace Warwick from Pender sent me this real “big win”: The Ktunaxa Nation and environmental groups have succeeded in a 30 year fight to stop an appalling ski resort. Instead, a new Indigenous Conserved and Protected Area (ICPA) has been established over a larger area of the Purcell Mountain range. Thanks to Environment and Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson for a $16 million boost to make this a reality!

Good news too on the Fairy Creek forest protectors and the injunction threat. The threat remains, but the judge refused to grant the loggers an injunction. Instead, she has given the protectors’ lawyers three weeks to better prepare their case.

Lastly, this citizen, volunteer effort to explain why Bill C-12 is so inadequate really cheered me.  Please watch the YouTube and help share this excellent piece of work far and wide.

Happy International Women’s Day!

And for Commonwealth Day, later today you can watch their Trees for the Wild event. (See details below).

Much love and rock on sisters!

Elizabeth

P.S.  Please sign and share this e-petition to the Parliament of Canada to support the COVID “long haulers!”

1. Recognize and label long COVID as a health syndrome;
2. Create a registry system for long COVID patients, include this data in Health Canada’s daily case count, and consider these patients “Unrecovered” or “Not Infectious”;
3. Swiftly fund robust, targeted research of COVID-19 and long COVID; and
4. Establish clinics for diagnosed long COVID patients, whether COVID-19 tested or not, to address medical, cognitive, psychological, rehabilitative and employment issues.

“Trees in the Wild” ZOOM event on the Great Bear Rainforest on Sunday, 07 March 2021 2:00 p.m. (PST)…….registration is available on EventBrite.

Tickets

Tickets for Trees In The Wild – A Conversation About The Great Bear Rainforest can be booked here.

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Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands)
2021-02-17 18:30 [p.4191]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the minister very much for his work in this area. I want to also commend him for acknowledging the extraordinary work of former member of Parliament Romeo Saganash, and all the work that was done when it was a private member’s bill.

I agree with the comment from the hon. member for Winnipeg Centre, but I have a sense, which I want to put to the hon. minister, that we will be disappointed. Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples makes it clear that before projects, administrative or legislative changes can happen that affect indigenous peoples, the state party, in this case Canada, must ensure free, prior and informed consent.

We bought the Kinder Morgan pipeline, and knew at the time we bought it that it was opposed in court by the Tsleil-Waututh, the Musqueam and the Squamish. We know that to this day it is opposed by the Tsartlip Nation. I do not know how we can go forward with the notion of free, prior and informed consent when many projects across Canada have been undertaken and, in the case of Trans Mountain, subsidized to the tune of $17 billion in public funds in direct opposition to, and in violation of, the notion of free, prior and informed consent.
I know that, as the Minister of Justice, this is not exactly his responsibility area, but how do we square that circle?

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The post Happy National Indigenous People’s Day appeared first on Elizabeth May.

FREDERICTON – At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam warned that Indigenous communities would face disproportionate risks from the virus. Limited access to health care in remote regions, substandard housing, poverty and underlying health conditions are among the issues of concern.

Green Party caucus critic for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Indigenous Services, Jenica Atwin (MP, Fredericton) notes that historic underfunding and institutional racism have left Indigenous communities particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.

“The challenges Indigenous communities are facing are complex and varied. There is no one-size-fits-all solution,” said Atwin. “What is clear is that the administration of relief programs and government aid needs to be Indigenous-informed and -led. This must include adequate and sustained funding for Friendship Centres and Native Women’s Centres as key service providers. The $15M announced by the Federal government so far is totally inadequate. And First Nations communities must be funded, informed, and empowered to protect their membership.”

The Coalition for the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples recently stated that where Indigenous communities have required suspension of certain activities in their territories, restricting access of workers, tourists, cottagers, and others, this must be respected. However, work on projects such as Coastal GasLink (CGL), the Site C dam, LNG Canada and the Trans Mountain pipeline(TMX) continues, with employees being flown in and out, despite requests by local Indigenous communities to cease these activities. Workers, housed in close quarter on-site camps, pose a serious health risk to nearby Indigenous populations.

Lorraine Rekmans, Green Party shadow cabinet critic for Indigenous Affairs, noted the legal nature of Indigenous people’s rights in Canada: “This includes a commitment to free, prior and informed consent on any actions that impact Indigenous communities,” said Rekmans. “Canada’s priority must be to work in partnership with communities to protect Indigenous citizens from any risk, including the risk of community transmission from workers who are entering Indigenous territories.”

Green Party Interim Leader Jo-Ann Roberts added: “Not only do we need to respect the authority of Indigenous communities over their territory now, but we need to ensure that they are at the centre of decision-making and planning as Canada rebuilds, and the global economy starts rolling again in the coming weeks and months. Indigenous peoples must no longer be treated as an afterthought in Canadian decision making.”

# # #

For more information or to arrange an interview:

Rosie Emery

Press Secretary

613-562-4916 ext, 204

rosie.emery@greenparty.ca

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I just spent some time in jail.

Along with friends and colleagues Jody Wilson-Raybould, and Senator Pao Woo and Senator Kim Pate, on Friday morning I visited the William Head prison outside Victoria. In the evening, we toured a hell-hole of a detention centre in the basement of the Vancouver airport. It has served for decades as the “temporary” facility for people on their way out of Canada under deportation orders. It is about to be closed and replaced with a much more humane facility to open soon in Surrey.

Greens work on more than any one issue at a time. Restorative justice and humanity in our correctional facilities really matter. Before being a senator, Kim Pate worked her whole life for the rights of the incarcerated and fairness in our justice system. So she is making it a priority to get parliamentarians to tour jails.

The William Head facility is a model for the world. In the words of one prisoner we met, the place “re-humanizes people who have been dehumanized by maximum and medium security prisons.” Sadly, isolated as it is on Vancouver Island, near Metchosin, it is not celebrated within our prison system. Many of the staff report, not to the warden, but to bureaucrats on the mainland who fail to support the work being done to prepare inmates for a return to society. The prison lacks programmes that used to exist. There are no longer opportunities for getting high school and post-secondary degrees. If not for dozens of local volunteers who assist in the facility, opportunities to travel into Victoria and start making links there to mental health supports and volunteer opportunities would simply not exist. Perched on a tiny spit of land, the prison needs only one fence and gate – the ocean on three sides provides the other “walls.” The programmes for indigenous inmates include a carving shed where amazing artwork is being created.

I have much more work to do to support the amazing staff team there.

Meanwhile, between prison visits I watched the appalling press conference held by our prime minister. I had thought I knew what was going on due to meeting with the PM, meeting with and talking with Ministers Marc Miller and Carolyn Bennett (often through the week) and Paul Manly talking with the hereditary chiefs. The “we have run out of patience” line on Friday seemed at odds with the prime minister’s speech on Tuesday:

“Patience may be in short supply…And that makes it more valuable than ever.” (As also noted in this column from Paul Wells https://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/four-days-worth-of-justin-trudeaus-patience/)

As I write this, I am deeply worried that Justin Trudeau is responding to polls that tell him the Conservative message of impatience is gaining strength.

Until his press conference I thought we were making progress. The RCMP have said they will withdraw from Wet’suwet’en territory. The hereditary Chiefs say they need to confirm that has taken place.

Another hopeful change of circumstance: the BC Environmental Assessment Office has held back construction approval on a length of pipeline through the most contested length of route and asked Coastal Gas Link to return for more consultation. That is another helpful opening.

We need time and space- without construction – for the Crown to meaningfully engage with the hereditary leadership.

We need – as Greens and as supporters of reconciliation – to avoid taking sides within the Wet’suwet’en nation, but to stay with the path to reconciliation as guided by Supreme Court decisions. The hereditary chiefs must be consulted. They cannot be pushed to one side. Premier John Horgan rolled the dice gambling that his government can bulldoze through the objections of hereditary chiefs – whose role in governance of land and title has been established by the Supreme Court (in Delgamuukw) and by the BC government in treaty negotiations (see this interview with a BC treaty negotiator. https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/treaty-negotiator-letter-wetsuweten-1.5469932

Horgan decided to support Coastal Gas Link and ignore the compromise route proposed by the hereditary chiefs. This conflict and all the blockades are directly due to politicians who claim to be committed to UNDRIP, but feel free to ignore it if it gets in the way of their short-term agenda.

Resolving this matter without violence is my number one concern. I remember Oka and Ipperwash. If they clear one blockade with violence, others will spring up. This is a very complicated matter. It is a real test of Canada as a people. It is a test of our leaders. And, so far, they are failing.

I hope and pray that my missive next week can share good news. And I hope that the Cabinet rejecting the Teck oil sands mine is still possible.

Stay the course and never give up.

In love and hope,

Elizabeth

This weekly blog is published by Elizabeth’s EDA in Saanich-Gulf Islands. You can sign up for it here.

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This weekend of Valentine’s Day is also a time marking Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. This year is the thirtieth annual series of events and marches.

On Wet’suwet’en Territory, The Hereditary chiefs and matriarchs were holding a ceremony to honour the memories of the missing and murdered indigenous women when they were arrested on February 10, 2020. The hanging of red dresses along fences posts and trees has been a powerful symbol of those missing mothers and aunties and sisters and daughters. No one image spoke so powerfully to me of the failings of our government to meet its obligations to indigenous people as those of RCMP officers removing the red dresses. I guess any reminder of murdered and missing women is a threat to Coastal Gas Link.

There is a connection. The Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls reported its conclusion that large resource projects and labour camps pose a threat to vulnerable indigenous women and two-spirited people. Hitch-hiking is the only mode of transit for those without cars. Greyhound service is gone. And the camps – “man camps” as the MMIWG report labels them – create risks. Not that every construction worker is a threat to women, but some are. Violence and addiction increase in such settings.

This article in The Narwhal by Sarah Cox includes photos of the RCMP taking down red dresses. It also points out that John Horgan’s claim that the company has all the permits it needs is incorrect. https://thenarwhal.ca/rcmp-exclusion-zone-called-unlawful-as-police-arrest-matriarchs-at-unistoten-healing-camp/

This week’s massive response in solidarity actions across Canada have been inspiring – or horrific, depending on where you sit. This week I have heard friends say “we cannot have mob rule.” The news media wants to focus on what this costs our economy. All I can think is, with all the clear warning the BC and federal governments have had, what did they think would happen if the RCMP moved on to Wet’suwet’en territory to arrest Hereditary chiefs? We tried to tell them that full nation to nation consultation was required. Did they think that the resistance was down to a few individuals, who could be easily hauled away to enforce an injunction that turns our national police into private cops?

One of the strongest summaries of the “rule of law” argument came in this strong letter (slightly edited and published in the Globe and Mail) from one of my favourite constituents – Ronald Wright:

“As one who wrote about the Oka Crisis in my book Stolen Continents, I had a strong sense of foreboding when I heard BC Premier John Horgan invoke the “rule of law” to justify using force against the Wet’suwet’en pipeline protesters. Those same words were used often during the Oka Crisis by the government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1990.  Have we learned nothing in thirty years? Of many parallels, these stand out:

“1) Like the Mohawks, the Wet’suwet’en have never lost their ancient sovereignty as an independent people. Under international law there are two ways for a people to lose their sovereignty: by armed conquest, or by signing it away in a treaty. Neither is the case here.

“2) Like the Mohawks, the Wet’suwet’en have an ancient system of self-government that predates European occupation and is still alive. In the BC case, this is exercised by hereditary chiefs, who have consistently upheld their people’s rights since outsider encroachment began.

“3) The elected band councils set up under the Indian Act merely administer the small territories defined as reserves under the Indian Act. They have no jurisdiction over traditional territories beyond those boundaries, and no authority to make ‘agreements’ on what may be done there.

“With the Delgamuukw decision of 1997 and the Tsilqot’in decision of 2014, the Supreme Court has upheld aboriginal rights in BC and has said that the Wet’suwet’en unceded territory –in other words, land never transferred to Canada – may cover as much as 22,000 square kilometres. This means that neither the federal nor provincial government has any right to enforce its will there.  It is British Columbia and the RCMP who are breaking the rule of law.”

We must continue to push back on those who refer to the “rule of law” as though those who respect indigenous rights – and s 35 of the Constitution, for that matter – are outside the law. The fact is that economic damage and inconvenience for many travelers are the cost of Canada continuing to pretend we won a war and can do whatever we want to this land’s first peoples and the land that is their territory. Reconciliation and UNDRIP talk are in the air, but the mind-set of our governments appears hard-wired to fossil fuel extraction.

Meanwhile, there was news from 10 Downing Street. COP26 now has a president, replacing Claire Perry O’Neil, UK’s former Energy minister, whom PM Boris Johnson fired two weeks ago. More senior UK Tories, David Cameron and William Hague refused the role. It falls now to former secretary of state for international development Alok Sharma to steer COP26 in Glasgow to a successful conclusion.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/15/alok-sharma-cop26-success-climate-change?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

A great deal of the success or failure of COP negotiations rides on the skill of the president. To get a successful result in November at COP26, Sharma not only has to build a strong team serving his presidency, he has to start crisscrossing the globe to build relationships, test ideas and press for early commitments to much improved targets and plans. When I look back at the dozen climate sessions I have attended, the character of the president is a huge factor. Laurent Fabius who succeeded in Paris, Patricia Espinoza who rescued climate talks in Cancun in 2010 as well as Stephane Dion who led the COP11 talks in Montreal are all remembered as spectacular chairs. The disaster in Copenhagen in 2009 was largely the fault of Prime Minister Rasmussen who fired his Environment minister half-way through the talks and took over himself. Rasmussen relied on back-room dealing and bad faith negotiation. But to most people watching these cumbersome, lumbering formal sessions, among and between 194 countries, the idea that it can all come down to a handful of people and their own talents may seem far-fetched. The world is depending on someone I had never heard of until yesterday’s announcement. With every day bringing more and accelerating bad news – locusts, storm surges and the hottest January on record, we all need to hope that Alok Sharma is a miracle worker. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/13/january-hottest-earth-record-climate-crisis

Have a great long weekend. Paul and Jenica and I are back in Parliament starting Tuesday!

Love and thanks,

Elizabeth

P.S. some friends asked me to attach links to some of my recent media and articles:

My interview with Evan Solomon on CTV where I try to explain the legal foundation of Wet’suwet’en land rights: https://podbay.fm/podcast/1039513210/e/1581551460

My article on the rising costs of the TMX (formerly Kinder Morgan pipeline): https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/12/opinion/elizabeth-may-asks-what-cost-canada

And lastly, friends have asked for a link to the wiki page leading to a Renaissance of Green Party vision and values. “GreensTogether”.

This weekly blog is published by Elizabeth’s EDA in Saanich-Gulf Islands. You can sign up for it here.

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That seemingly straight-forward statement is replete with misconceptions.For one thing, the pipeline’s “initial estimate” was not $7.4 billion. In the National Energy Board hearings, Kinder Morgan estimated the cost of building the pipeline expansion at $5.4 billion. So the real leap in costs is from $5.4 to $12.6 billion.

For another thing that new figure of $12.6 billion isn’t the full cost to Canadians. To get that you have to add in the $4.4 billion of taxpayers money spent on buying the pipeline in the first place. So the real cost to Canadians is $12.6 billion plus $4.4 billion for a whopping $16 billion.

For a third thing, we paid $4.4 billion for the existing 67-year-old pipeline as the cost of getting to zero to build the expansion. But the value of the pipeline is now likely far below what we paid. In its June 2019 report, the Parliamentary Budget Office estimated that the value of the pipeline, when we agreed to buy it, was $2.8 billion.

On Friday, February 7, 2020, the CEO of Trans Mountain pipeline, Ian Anderson, announced that the costs of building the pipeline expansion have “soared from an initial estimate of $7.4 billion to $12.6 billion.”

‘Buying an old and leaky pipeline in order to take over a private sector project that had hit the rocks was hardly smart. But overpaying for it to the extent that the Liberals did was an act of political desperation,’ writes @ElizabethMay

Second, it took the money raised for the equity required by Canadian banks to secure their investment, $1.5 billion, and used it to pay down debt held by the parent company.

Instead of heeding those signs, the Liberals paid a price exceeding the old pipeline’s value in order to take on a project that Kinder Morgan had clearly decided would not fly.

The Liberals wanted more than anything to prove they could get the pipeline built. One can only imagine the glee of the Texas oil men when they realized they could sell the old pipeline for nearly twice what it was worth.

When Kinder Morgan kidnapped its own project to demand a guarantee — or else — they were not looking for ransom. They wanted to shoot the hostage. Being able to blame a third party when they abandoned the project could avoid penalties under long-term contracts Kinder Morgan had signed.

But the reckless behaviour with public funds does not end with the announcement in May 2018 that the Government of Canada was buying the pipeline for $4.4 billion.

On Aug. 30, 2018, the Federal Court of Appeal struck down the pipeline permits ruling that not only did the Liberal government violate Indigenous rights leading to the quashing of the permit, Kinder Morgan itself violated indigenous rights. In other words, the vendor contributed to the devaluing of the asset, and we should never have paid $4.4 billion without re-negotiating the price.

Yet, without any explanation, Finance Minister Bill Morneau cut a cheque for $4.4 billion to Kinder Morgan the very next day, Aug. 31, with no closing date for purchase and sale of the pipeline.

We overpaid not once, but twice.

What is most galling to me is that our public funds are being used to brow-beat First Nations along the route into signing benefit agreements. One elected council member of a First Nation that is fighting the project told me recently that they are being “bombarded” by the now government-owned Trans Mountain with offers of millions of dollars to agree to the project.

Those are public dollars being used to coerce acceptance of a project most Indigenous nations do not want to accept. And yet every time a First Nation accepts a benefit agreement, politicians celebrate it claiming Indigenous people want the project. That is the case in some instances, but it seems like the latest form of oppression and colonialism: Refuse to listen to Indigenous objections, convince people the project is inevitable and use our money to bribe and coerce.

As Chief Allan Adam of the Fort Chipewyan Nation explained his decision to agree to the Teck Frontier mine:

“We’ve been fighting industry for how long? And we’ve spent well over $1 million in court fees with nothing tangible in return… So what am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to continue on fighting as a chief while others sit on the fence and say nothing and do nothing?

“I don’t want to do this. I didn’t want to make this decision but I had no choice. I had to make sure my nation was protected, and that our people are going to benefit from it for the future.”

Now, we have federal dollars flowing into a Crown Corporation. Anderson boasts that he runs it as though it were in the private sector. Any notion that concern for Indigenous rights will be greater now that the people of Canada own the pipeline can be set aside as fanciful.

The Trans Mountain pipeline remains a project outside market forces. The arguments for it rest on misconceptions and propaganda. It will not get a higher price at “tidewater.” Bitumen is inevitably expensive to produce with low value in the marketplace. As the carbon bubble bursts, these expensive “assets” will be the first to be stranded — uneconomical and unusable. Pursuing it blows our Paris commitments while squandering public funds.

It is not too late to ask the question: what could be done with the further $13 billion? Could we not do more for the Alberta economy in cleaning up toxic abandoned wells and mines, as well as tailings ponds in northern Alberta? Could we not fund green and renewable energy? Ensure clean drinking water for every First Nation? Ensure we have an electricity grid to move 100% renewable energy from province to province?

How much is too much? In my view, a single penny more is too much.

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