by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU E. CHISU, CD, PMSC,
FEC, CET, P. Eng.
Former Member of Parliament Pickering-Scarborough East
Today I direct your attention to the sad state of affairs in the building of the LNG pipeline in northern British Columbia which crosses the Wet'suwet'en territory. All the rules were followed and all the legal steps were respected in establishing the route of the proposed pipeline, yet suddenly protests were initiated all over Canada by a small minority in support of some hereditary chiefs opposed to the project.
The protesters have blockaded the rail system all over Canada in blatant disregard of the rule of law in this country. The services are crippled and people are being laid off. The damage to the economy is immense but nobody seems to care.
Protesters of many stripes have the upper hand in pockets of the country, probably not even Canadians. The national interest has no defender today; not by the governing liberals, nor the week conservative opposition, or the other puppet parties. The preferred solution of the government is not a return to order and apprehension of the offenders but rather, the use of the so called "dialogue" mechanism.
This obsolete and amorphous prescription generated by the politically correct approach as the lowest form of leadership sophistry used by the government of the day, shows a complete isolation from the evident reality. Let's call a spade a spade, and call this vacillation and the evasion of responsibility.
A government that seems incapable of enforcing the rule of law or asserting the national interest has lost the will to govern and is not fit to represent the interest of the nation. It has effectively ceded the right to govern.
Dialogue is no prescription for those who refuse to listen because they believe themselves to be custodians of the only truth as communists usually do. They break the laws of the land with abandon, certain that they will face no consequences. This is anarchy.
Many of their complaints have been addressed extensively by the courts and by the responsible regulatory agencies and have been endorsed by duly elected band councils. Yet nothing but abject capitulation is what is being demanded.
Grievances of many kinds are used to justify what we are witnessing in various parts of the country, vestiges of mob rule, the antithesis of the democratic values we cherish and have been long established in our own Canadian identity.
Opposition to pipelines, the safest and most efficient means for transporting oil and gas, nuclear energy, the cleanest form of electricity generation, and exploitation of our natural resources, has gone from irrational to hysterical.
Our competitors in the U.S., Australia and the EU, among other nations on the globe, can barely suppress outright laughter as they watch the folly and madness of Canada strangling the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of its citizens who prefer to work rather than protest.
India and China and even Japan mock us openly by going ahead with increased coal generated electricity while espousing empty commitments to the Paris Accord. Not to mention Russia, who thinks maybe the Canadian government will blame them for its current situation, claiming their interference in the internal affairs of Canada.
"Do you know that one of the great problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas."
Margaret Thatcher
Today we are living in a country where the political establishment lacks vision and leadership. Instead of a clear sense of direction, they take refuge in politically correct wording and newly created mythologies. Instead of leadership, they subject us to babblings and senseless justifications based on fake feelings.
The rule of law has been parked in the holding cell. Our law enforcement agencies are idled, awaiting the direction no one in government seems willing to give. In the absence of firm political leadership, fingers are pointed everywhere except where they belong.
The priorities for any Canadian government are national unity, prosperity and security. We are now in urgent demand to decide, resolve and act to respect the above. Tensions are increasing in western Canada as efforts to develop their major energy resource are negated or red taped by excessive and useless bureaucratic regulations and malefic neglect. Our economy at this point is suffering, and our security is gravely compromised by the unwillingness of those who purport to govern to uphold the law.
Before we try to save the planet and lecture others about respect for the rule of law, we urgently need to refurbish the national fabric in our own country.
We are slowly sliding towards a national paralysis with the same degree of complacency and indulgence that brought us to these self-inflicted crisis policies that have crippled our competitiveness, set region against region, compromised our global image and left us quarrelling over unimportant and obsolete issues.
Let's be clear: All of these practices amount to sheer neglect of our present and the future of the country, and perversely, the tolerance for inaction in Canada seems to be at an all-time high.
We need a firm combination of leadership and action. What do you think?
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