All sides must work for achievable goals

In many respects, the current protests and rail blockades dotting the country share much with the “Occupy” movement of 2011. While both express legitimate frustrations and historical grievances, they make/made for a moving target, by rolling up more and more grievances into the same conceptual cloud. The Occupy movement was not especially successful, and I am not very hopeful that the Wet’suwet’en protests will benefit that nation, either.

Stated plainly, telling people on the East Coast that they cannot have heating in their homes, or that western workers with no other livelihood are simply out of luck and work until reconciliation is achieved, makes no sense. It is like telling First Nations that they are not going to see any efforts on potable water until climate-change is successfully addressed. Neither approach leads to a happy or timely ending.

That does not mean that the blockades are pointless or unjustified. Rather, whatever is intended to be achieved needs to be focused, discussable, and observably actionable. Identifying a pipeline route that makes for the least environmental threat, and least disruption to Wet’suwet’en traditional ways, in a feasible manner, is a sensible and legitimate objective, and an achievable one. Those who think they are defeating the fossil fuel industry “dragon” by blocking any pipeline are living in a quixotic dream.

The fossil fuel industry certainly needs to wind down, strategically, but cannot come to a screeching halt. Provincial and federal governments have to insist that they need a short list of achievables, so that they can sit down, talk, and get something done. It is not enough to simply declare, “You’re hurting the Canadian economy. Abandon your grievances and blockades before we can talk.”

Mark Hammer, Ottawa