Derek H. Burney: Enough is enough. Clear the blockades, restore the rule of law

Mohawk people wait for Canada's Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller's arrival before his meeting with representatives of the Mohawk Nation, at the site of a rail stoppage on Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, as part of a protest against British Columbia's Coastal GasLink pipeline, in Tyendinaga, Ontario, Canada February 15, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio

It has been said that the fact of eliminating blockages and also restoring the rule of law should be sufficient. In this regard, one could say that at times like this, Lucien Bouchard’s statement that “Canada is not a real country” has a strange tone of truth. Being that the demonstrators of many fringes have the advantage in the pockets of the country.

In this way, it is necessary to bring up important facts such as the fact that the railway lines are blocked and the services suspended. A provincial legislature was closed. The country’s economy is paralyzed. The national interest has no defender. And the preferred solution is not the return to order and the detention of criminals.

Everything indicates that the current government seems unable to enforce the rule of law or affirm the national interest has lost the will to govern. In fact, it could be said that he has effectively given up the right to govern. Dialogue is not a recipe for those who refuse to listen because they believe they are custodians of the only truth.

They break the laws of the land with abandonment, certain that they will not face consequences, in addition to this, many of their complaints have been dealt with extensively by the courts and the responsible regulatory agencies and have been backed by duly elected band councils.

The legitimacy that justifies the facts

It is clear that there are many complaints and similarly they are of various types of which some of them may have legitimacy lines that are used to justify what we are witnessing in various parts of the country, as well as the vestiges of the Mafia government, the antithesis of democratic values that we supposedly appreciate. Likewise, opposition to pipelines, which could be established as the safest and most efficient means of transporting oil and gas, has gone from irrational to hysterical.

With the support of too many people responsible for education in this country, the vilification of our resource base and the support for the fanciful “aspirations” for climate change march in tandem. Clearly, without genuine commitments from major polluters, the crusade for climate change is quickly becoming a fool’s game.

Now, it is important to say that we currently have no vision or leadership. Instead of a clear sense of direction, we wallow in mantras and mythologies to save the world. Instead of leadership, we hear harmless topics. Our law enforcement agencies are inactive, waiting for the address that no one in the government seems willing to give.

We are sliding towards a national paralysis with the same degree of complacency and indulgence that led us to this crisis made by ourselves: policies that have stunted our competitiveness created one region against another, emptied our global image and left us fighting on the periphery. The most precious elements of our existence are stunted by pure abandonment.

Source: Derek H. Burney | National Post