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Letters: Haisla LNG, Kinder Morgan, pipeline protests, Adrian Dix, Ferguson, TV sex, Christy Clark, ferries

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It’s about the money

The Haisla Indian band is proposing to export LNG from a B.C. property that originally was slated for the Northern Gateway terminal to load and export oil. Yes, the cat is finally out of the bag. It was all about money!

Forget about fish, water, the environment, ancestry and holy spirits. It was all about manipulating a judiciary that arbitrarily has adopted those massive claims for lands and resources as a vehicle to re-create Canada in its own image.

The June 2014 ruling on the BC Tsilhqot’in Indian’s land claim left a huge cloud of uncertainty over the issue of rights to lands and resources for all Canadians, Indians included.

The ruling states in part that “aboriginal rights are evolving and may only be clarified over time,” essentially extinguishing the concept of title.

Our judiciary has effectively decided to redefine Canada without any consideration for the rights associated with citizenship, and will instead proceed willy nilly on a case-by-case basis, without providing the single most important criteria industry, governments and the people desperately need to move forward — closure.

The process will also continue to segregate the Indians and condemn them to live in poverty, without any realistic hope of developing a sustainable lifestyle that will provide them with a quality of life enjoyed by other Canadians, and the resource industry will continue to be held hostage to our judiciary.

Andy Thomsen, Summerland

Change the laws, if you don’t like them

Given the National Energy Board Act, Kinder Morgan has the right to survey potential pipeline routes in order to gain enough information to lay out a proposal to the National Energy Board.

They can carry out these surveys without a landowner’s approvals but must minimize survey impacts and restore survey sites to their original condition once the work has been done.

As such, the bluster of protesters is rather empty and pointless. They should protest the federal government’s changes to the act. If you don’t agree with the laws of the country, lobby the government to change them — don’t interfere someone else’s legal rights.

Paul Moffatt, Richmond

Didn’t work for NDP

The NDP seemed unbeatable leading up to the last provincial election. But near the end of the campaign, then-NDP leader Adrian Dix sensed that he had points to gain by taking a stand against Kinder Morgan’s plans to expand its pipeline.

After he lost, most observers blamed Dix’s defeat on his misreading of the majority’s opinion about resource development.

Today, anti-oil protesters are making the same mistake. If they want to make changes in the use of fossil fuels, they should work on that. Thinking they can shut down production and transportation of oil is foolhardy.

Doug Bodaly, Nanaimo

Ferguson violence is upsetting

I am dismayed at the uprising in Ferguson, Mo., and other U.S. cities as a result of the grand jury verdict regarding the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown. Don’t the folks burning buildings and looting realize that their actions, once again, reflect negatively on all of the people involved?

And do the people marching for change believe that all black persons shall always be deemed innocent and all white police officers racist? How ridiculous.

We are all responsible for our own actions. I feel bad for Brown’s family but I also feel for the people of Ferguson who probably feel that things are out of control in their community but don’t know how to react in a positive way in the face of the violence and bad behaviour of only some of citizens.

Valerie White, Langley

Sex isn’t the answer

What a sad state of affairs when explicit sex scenes are offered as an improvement for TV viewers.

Are actors so inept that nudity, different positions, etc., are the focus of their performances? What has happened to plot, mystery and a storyline that keeps us guessing to the last scene?

We don’t need a sexual revolution on TV, we need talented writers, producers and actors.

Rhonda Madaski, Port Coquitlam

Premier doesn’t really care

I was surprised to see Premier Christy Clark voicing concerns about the loss of economic activity when it comes to the Alaskan ferry’s “Buy American” policy with Prince Rupert’s ferry terminal.

She certainly knows to say what people want to hear but does whatever she wants. The fact is, the premier’s own “Buy European” policy for new ferries will be an even bigger hit to our economy.

When the last three B.C. Ferry C-Class ships were built in Germany, our shipbuilding industry and province lost out on millions of dollars in economic activity and jobs. More recently, B.C. Ferries awarded the building of the next three ships to Poland.

If the premier were true to her word, she would have done whatever she could to get the B.C. shipbuilding industry ready to build the new fleet of B.C. Ferries ships.

Claire Trevena, NDP B.C. Ferries critic

 

 

The editorial pages editor is Gordon Clark, who can be reached at gclark@theprovince.com. Letters to the editor can be sent to provletters@theprovince.com.



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