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- Dec 12, 2015
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More blockades going up, police is stepping in. I’m usually not one to cry about liberal bias in the media, but the media seems to be walking on egg shells concerning this issue:
1. No, you’re not standing with Canadian 1st nations when you’re voicing your support for the blockades. You’re choosing one minority among 1st nations. Specifically, you’re choosing the side that thinks the anachronism of leadership by birth right is a valid form of government. That’s really what this is about, the rest (eg environmental concerns) were assumed later.
2. Nobody’s rights are being violated by forcefully removing the blockades. You have a right to gather and protest peacefully. Holding the economy hostage is not protesting peacefully.
All I hear is “wetsuwe’ten support” when that’s extremely inaccurate. I hear a lot about climate change, but this is first and foremost about elected chiefs (who signed off on the pipelines) and hereditary chiefs (who decided after the fact that they’re against it).
As for the current blockades, the sympathy among the general population has decreased with each day. As some of the more level headed native leaders have pointed out, this is not helping. All you’re doing now is enforcing stereotypes (‘who has time to protest for weeks on end? Obviously someone with nothing better to do’; ‘natives want to have their cake and eat it too’; ‘native interests are opposed to Canadian interests’ etc). It’s also objectively easy to see that at this point the protestors are simply forcing the hand of the government. Not even Trudeau’s hyper enlightened government can stand by any longer as our rail service is disrupted literally from east to west for the third consecutive week. They’ll frame it as an act of aggression, a violation of rights and a sign that there has been no progress on reconciliation. They might be right about the third part, but fact is that the government’s hand is now forced to act, there is simply no other choice.
1. No, you’re not standing with Canadian 1st nations when you’re voicing your support for the blockades. You’re choosing one minority among 1st nations. Specifically, you’re choosing the side that thinks the anachronism of leadership by birth right is a valid form of government. That’s really what this is about, the rest (eg environmental concerns) were assumed later.
2. Nobody’s rights are being violated by forcefully removing the blockades. You have a right to gather and protest peacefully. Holding the economy hostage is not protesting peacefully.
All I hear is “wetsuwe’ten support” when that’s extremely inaccurate. I hear a lot about climate change, but this is first and foremost about elected chiefs (who signed off on the pipelines) and hereditary chiefs (who decided after the fact that they’re against it).
As for the current blockades, the sympathy among the general population has decreased with each day. As some of the more level headed native leaders have pointed out, this is not helping. All you’re doing now is enforcing stereotypes (‘who has time to protest for weeks on end? Obviously someone with nothing better to do’; ‘natives want to have their cake and eat it too’; ‘native interests are opposed to Canadian interests’ etc). It’s also objectively easy to see that at this point the protestors are simply forcing the hand of the government. Not even Trudeau’s hyper enlightened government can stand by any longer as our rail service is disrupted literally from east to west for the third consecutive week. They’ll frame it as an act of aggression, a violation of rights and a sign that there has been no progress on reconciliation. They might be right about the third part, but fact is that the government’s hand is now forced to act, there is simply no other choice.