Speaking volumes with a few words

A recent post on Premier Brad Wall’s Facebook page says a lot about the man and his party. It read, “Environmental protesters left their recycling behind. Interesting,” linking to a video of some garbage left behind at one of the Dakota Access Pipeline protest camps.

The post is an example of “dog whistle politics” — a statement meant to resonate with a particular subgroup of the population. The premier knows that many of his supporters are pro-pipeline and that a story illustrating the apparent hypocrisy of environmentalists plays well with the party’s base.

However, he also knows that the environmentalists were largely indigenous people who came from across the continent to defend the water and land adjacent to the pipeline route.

This post contributed nothing to political discourse was more befitting of an Internet troll than the leader of a province. If Wall is serious about changing Saskatchewan’s reputation as the “Mississippi of the North,” he must stop fanning flames of intolerance.

Peter Garden, Saskatoon