It’s time to move on.
That from Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett who is weighing in on the proposed 670-kilometer Coastal GasLink LNG pipeline in Northern BC as RCMP arrested 14 people at one of two Indigenous protest camps in Wet’suwet’en traditional lands Monday evening.
“My thoughts are that we have to obey the law,” Barnett said.
“The law is the law. The court has made a decision and it’s time for everybody to move on. The economy of this province will not survive without resource industries.”
Barnett adds the more we continuously have roadblocks and people not obeying the law, we will not see investment in British Columbia.
Rallies against the proposed LNG pipeline and international solidarity with Wet’suwet’en are planned today across the country and the United States. No word if any will be taking place in the Cariboo-Chilcotin.
“It definitely could benefit First Nations,” Barnett said.
“All the First Nations have signed on, but the hereditary Chiefs are claiming that they did not and they are opposed to it and now we’ve got protests all over the countryside because of this. It is time to stop protests, sit down at the table, resolve the issues and move forward. It upsets me when the law is allowed to be broken and there doesn’t appear to be repercussions for many of it, and it is costing us, the taxpayer, jobs, support for families, and it’s something that has to stop.”
Barnett said while she understands the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is not in law, we have to respect everybody’s rights.
“It is a declaration. We have to respect First Nations rights and that is what the courts and the constitution says, but is time to work together and stop all of this rhetoric that it’s not good for this, it’s not good for that,” she said.
“If you don’t have jobs in an economy, you have a terrible environment.”
Police went into the blockade southwest of Smithers Monday to force an injunction that was issued by the BC Supreme Court three weeks ago.
“The Coastal GasLink pipeline will safely deliver natural gas from the Dawson Creek area, to the proposed LNG Canada facility near Kitimat,” TransCanada said.
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