Prepare to get taken to the woodshed, Junior.
In a move that brings joy to my heart, our new NDP/Green government has shown its ready to back up its promises (sort of the very thing Justin didn't do).
Joining BC's opposition to the Trans Canada bitumen pipeline, is the truly great Tom Berger, a fellow I got to know from his advocacy and inquiries but also from arguing several cases before him as a Justice of the BC Supreme Court.
I think CBC summed it up succinctly and without a whisp of hyperbole:
...the 84-year-old is perhaps the closest thing to a bona fide legend in B.C.'s legal and social justice circles and literally wrote the book on stopping pipelines.
While he argued for and successfully won the landmark Aboriginal title case Calder v. British Columbia early in his career, Berger is best-known for his work as the Royal Commissioner of the 1974 Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry commissioned by the federal government.
His book Northern Frontier, Northern Homeland based on the commission's findings — written in clear, plainly written prose paired with evocative images — became an instant best-seller.
In fact, it became the best-selling document ever published by the Canadian government.
Ottawa would do well to realize that Tom Berger is a lightning rod. He's that rare person who draws people to the support of certain beliefs and principles. And the photogenic little boy who betrays those he induced to believe in him and showed his principles were fungible is going to fight for the hearts and minds against a guy who literally will shred him. Hard not to feel like a boy who just learned his country had won a place in the World Cup finals. Yeah, bring it on.
.. I'm thrilled - amazed - astonished - to the emergency brakes applied on pipeline expansion or building in BC. I hope the same can happen re Site C aka Lake Christy Clark Memorial Dam.
ReplyDeleteI won't attempt to list all the sellout political animals captured by Big Energy.. along with their dimwitted caucuses, parties, and in most csses our governments. yes OUR GOVERNMENTS .. but suffice to say Stephen Harper & now Justin Trudeau, represent 12 years of such entrenchment. Pus sacks like the late Jim Flaherty, Joe Oliver, Peter Kent, Nigel Wright, Gail Shea etc were willing weenies under Harper, cheerfully enacting his dreadful policies as Ray Novak conveyed them
Canadian citizens don't 'get it' .. so consistant was Stephen Harper's propaganda war on reason.. re 'growing the economy' .. to enrich Canada and Canadians.. jobs jobs jobs blah blah blah.. and mainstream media provided the means to him. The Paul Godfreys of this country. As did the province of Alberta's completely complicit government.
Thus Canadians no more understand the reality of environmental destruction - that will never recover - ever - for maginal royalties paid by foreign owned energy consortiums. LNG in my view will end up fsr exceeding the damage from the tar sands as its destruction is far far far more widespread. Just watch and see what is happening in the shale area of the USA - Pennsylvania for example. The levels of corruption and damage are beyond belief.. and they won't have supertankers from Asia destroying marine environments like Canada has, especially of course BC.
Got my fingers crossed for all of you out in beautiful British Columbia.. where I used to live..and my favorite territory for fiction writing !