B.C. fighting for survival in Kinder Morgan dispute
In the making of treaties the First Nations knew that land ownership did not exist. Most newcomers thought they were gaining possession of a chunk of the earth. Not so. If you get a real copy of your title it will say, “Certificate of ownership in fee simple only “. You have just purchased the right to occupy as long as you pay taxes (rent). If you do not pay taxes for three years you get booted out.
You can do practically nothing without consent of a government for your proposal, and there are strict rules and codes regarding your plan and you must pay for that permission. Try to convert your attached garage into a living space and see the convoluted hoops you will run into. All this means is that you do not really own that chunk of dirt.
Now how does that fit into things like protesters being arrested at the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion? First, Canada does not have the right to give permits for development on First Nations land. Unless the RCMP have permission from the chief and council and members of that reserve they have no right to be corporate goons forcing an injunction issued by a judge who had no right to issue anything on First Nations land.
That being said, in union disputes, the RCMP or other police forces should not be corporate goons. They should only be there to keep the peace in case violence breaks out, otherwise they are being corporate goons.
Like First Nations, our rights are cumulative in land rights and a judge should have no right to issue an injunction in favour of a corporation that the majority of the people have objection too. We do not have a democracy we have a corpratocracy. Although we call a vote every few years a democracy, but that is a figment of the imagination because once elected, the member elected must vote as directed by the party that sponsored him/her and is enforced by the party whip. That could be easy to fix, just have secret voting by any and all elected representatives. Then democracy may be birthed.
Now, most elected members do not want secret voting as they use how they have voted to maintain their lucrative job. If the members are not pleased with the outcome of the vote they can demand the members be polled.
Now let’s look at the Golden Rule in effect: “Those That Have the Gold Rule”. As long as the electorate choose to be politically illiterate we shall be flim-flammed by those in the top one per cent. So here’s to the uninformed that continue to be taken and not even know it.
The economic and job factor loss a tanker spill would cause, plus the tourist and recreation loss, would be devastating. B.C. is fighting for survival in efforts to stop Kinder Morgan.
John McDonald
Duncan