There is real pain in the age of KXL and lockdowns
A lot of thoughts went through my head when U.S. President Joe Biden did as expected and rescinded the presidential permit for the Keystone XL pipeline on Wednesday.
But my thoughts kept coming back to an email I received earlier this week. Peter wrote to me a few days ago to tell me his younger brother Norm had died.
“On the first lockdown, he lost his job leaving him with no way to support his family. Somewhere along the way, he and his wife developed a crack habit.” They lost their condo. They didn't have the money to get their belongings out of storage. They packed what they could to live in their car, along with their six-year-old boy. Then, due to an expired licence, authorities impounded the car too.
They tried to get support from family in Vancouver, but by then they were in full siege of addiction and they moved to a city with even easier access to harder street drugs. Grandma threw them out after a couple of months.
“Needless to say their boy ended up in the arms of social services and they crawled their way back to Edmonton. No money, no place to go and broken from losing their boy.” Norm was found sitting up against a building in south Edmonton on Friday night. He was so cold he must have been there for a while.
“My brother was a fully functioning contributing member of society and within a year, the government took everything from him. Including his life.” Peter wrote me because he was furious about the lockdown restrictions that began his brother's downfall. But he said something that could apply just as well to Keystone XL and myriad other government decisions that have led to massive job losses in recent years.
“Government better start recognizing that I am in a huge and growing demograph of people who are developing a true TRUE hate for elected and unelected people that make snap decisions just so they can appear to be doing something.”
This is what job loss looks like. This is the despair that comes of being unable to support yourself and your family. When Premier Jason Kenney talks about the 2,000 people who lost their jobs in a snap decision by the president, he's talking about guys like Norm. When the Building Trades of Alberta issues a news release warning that this decision is going to cost thousands of jobs, it is talking about guys like Norm.
Yet Green party Leader Annamie Paul said Biden's decision shows the U.S. is now going to be led by a committed “climate warrior,” while Canada's leadership is “not serious about tackling the climate emergency.”
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh applauded the move as well, saying, “I agree with that decision. I do not support the project ... This is the direction that the future requires, we've got to fight the climate crisis.”
How did everything get this broken? How did the left, the people who keep on telling us they are the true champion for the working class, become so cruel?
For days, the commentariat has talked endlessly about the great personal relationship between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Biden, and how great the change in the White House will be for Canada. Both are clearly untrue. If their relationship was so great, Biden would have delayed his decision until they'd had a chance to meet and discuss the consequences of it. If Biden is going to be so great for Canada, his first act would not have been to strike a blow to an industry that exports more than
$100 billion in products, mostly to the U.S.
But who can blame the Americans when our political leaders cheer them on and do the same? Trudeau cancelled the Northern Gateway pipeline and TC Energy cancelled Energy East after seeing no clear path to approval. If we don't want to build pipelines to get our own resources to market off our own shores, why should they?
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has announced her intention to rescind the permit for Line 5 through the Straits of Mackinac, which will cut off the supply of oil to refineries in Sarnia, Ont. Those refineries produce gasoline and diesel to power eastern Canadian cars, propane to heat their homes and aviation fuel for Pearson International Airport.
Ontario and Quebec better wake up. This misery is coming your way next.