Last week, I spent more than 36 hours on a bridge, standing and sleeping more than 100 feet in the air in order to block the path of a tanker carrying oil from the Alberta tar sands — not what you might expect from a former volunteer for Rachel Notley
As someone who feels completely at home in both, the tone of recent relations between our provinces has been unsettling for me. Increasingly we seem to be acting like siblings in a quarrel that is obstinate and escalating.
Canadians are rightly proud that we provide access to universal health care. Yet when it comes to environmental health there is no adequate protection to the detrimental impacts of environmental contamination on health.
Canada’s constitution grants them many rights, and it is far from certain that these rights have been respected in the pipeline approval processes. Currently, 18 cases are before the courts in this matter. Regardless of the rulings in these cases, the parties will certainly appeal, perhaps all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, which could take years.
I am on the horns of a dilemma I hope you can help me solve. I campaigned for Justin Trudeau, and was thrilled when, after years of Stephen Harper’s negligence on climate change, Trudeau’s new government made it an early priority to create a national plan to meet our Paris Climate Accord commitments.
If the vote resulted in a snap election, it's quite likely that the B.C. Liberals would have gotten back into power, and the project would have gone ahead anyway.
