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People have right to peaceful protest

To the Editor,
27291293_web1_letters-mir-211117-T_1

To the Editor,

Open letter to MLA Lorne Doerkson

I want to express my deep concern and opposition to the militaristic use of the RCMP to arrest protesters and dismantle their camps in the Gitxsan territory in northern B.C. Consultation and the resulting reconciliation are goals that most B.C.’ers would support. Using the force that the RCMP seems to have accepted as their new modus operandi (like at Fairy Creek) is only going to harden the stance opponents to the gas line now have.

The legislature voted to adopt UNDRIP to great pomp and ceremony and then turns around and says that the northern gas line doesn’t count - that the use of force, and potentially deadly force, as a negotiating tool, is justified. This scares the heck out of me! Might does not make right. Let’s hope this doesn’t prompt more and more violent protests. These were peaceful protesters exercising their right. Yes. it was civil disobedience, but much good change has happened throughout history thanks to civil disobedience. I shouldn’t need to re-tell our history to our representatives. Those citizens are now praised as heroes.

I too don’t support the LNG pipeline, I don’t buy the line that this will pay for the transition to renewables, that this is ‘clean’ energy. I am fearful for the damage fracking has caused and will cause to supply that gas line, and the potential damage to waterways caused by the building of this pipeline. I have lived in the Cariboo for 46 years and I tell myself and friends every day that we live in the best place on earth, that B.C. is indeed beautiful and we are blessed to have such a gem of a place to call home ….please let’s not screw it up. Be like Bonnie Henry says ‘be kind, be calm, and be safe’. Surely humankind should have advanced beyond the use of brute force to get their way by now. Apparently not yet.

Also, we’re slipping into dangerous territory when we start to lock up journalists. They are brave, and acting as the eyes and ears for those of us who cannot be there to see for ourselves. We don’t want to be the ‘Brazil of the North’ where Indigenous people and journalists are trod upon for the good of the economy and to the detriment of the environment.

Rod Hennecker

Lone Butte