8 Mar 2020
The Hamilton Spectator published the letter below in their letters to the editoral column on March 10th. It was written in response to an editorial slugged, "Canada isn't broken." The paper edited the letter a bit, taking out some parts, I guess to tone down the criticsm.
There are degrees of broken. Canada isn’t a Venezuela, Libya, or Syria. No one would say the Spectator is broken. But to argue that Canada isn’t broken merely to defend young Justin from the consequences of his weakness takes some pretty big blinders.
The protests against the pipeline by the so-called hereditary chiefs (Frank Alec took his ‘Chief Woos’ title off a woman, while she was still alive) has been going on for ten years. The hereditary chiefs’ organization is in fact a corporation that is funded primarily from foreign sources – some being left wing trouble makers, others who have an economic interest in keeping Canadian resources off the market. The chiefs were engaged in a struggle for power – who was going to control the fate of the Wetsuwet’en – elected band councils and elected chiefs, or them with their claim of royal status and foreign funding?
In the end, victory turned on who controlled the mobs. And it wasn’t Sunny Ways who prevailed over Chief Intimidation. He knuckled under, despite having the law and law enforcement on his side. Justin’s dealing with the hereditary chiefs and cutting the legs out from under the legally recognized elected officials. Whoever said democracy conferred legitimacy? It’s who controls the mobs, and it isn’t Justin or the band councils.
Canada isn’t broken, it’s fractured. A wrong move by Justin, and the weakening of the rule of law will become obvious.
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