‘In defending our magnificently beautiful, invaluable and “supernatural” British Columbia, they will keep standing on the right side of history and join the ranks of those who fought major battles that helped change our world for the better.’ Photograph By JENNIFER GAUTHIER
Dear Editor: Re: Will there be ‘chaos’ over pipeline?, Burnaby Now, April 18.
Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan is right in stating that opposition to the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion will escalate if the courts allow the pipeline construction to go ahead. While various parties who support the project proclaim that opponents are flouting the rule of law, the great irony is that the real miscarriage of justice lies within the process that spawned the approval of this project – a decision biased by political horse trading where the approval of the pipeline was linked to Alberta’s involvement with the national climate change plan.
As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated in an interview with the National Observer: “Yes, they were linked to each other. Alberta right now is led by a premier who has done things that no premier has ever been able to do, and it was always a trade-off.” If such a “trade-off” was always the case, how can the process that led to the approval of the pipeline have any credibility when the outcome was a foregone conclusion? Many concerned participants who were involved in that public process – First Nations, environmentalists, consultants, community and professional groups, Greater Vancouver municipalities such as Burnaby, and various other parties – know the extent to which it was a flawed process fraught with both ethical and legal deficiencies. That is the basic reason there are so many legal challenges to the federal government’s approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
One thing is certain, people will keep fighting this good fight on behalf of our current generation, our children and our grandchildren. In defending our magnificently beautiful, invaluable and “supernatural” British Columbia, they will keep standing on the right side of history and join the ranks of those who fought major battles that helped change our world for the better.
- John Sbragia, Burnaby
