Dear Editor: I am very disappointed the government wants to risk destruction of our environment and violate Aboriginal rights by subsidizing businesses willing to profit from our misery by building a pipeline through unceded First Nation lands and exporting toxic oil from our West Coast.
(The federal government said that Canada is “now a full supporter, without qualification,” of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples. It reads, in part:
“Article 8 1. Indigenous peoples and individuals have the right not to be subjected to forced assimilation or destruction of their culture. 2. States shall provide effective mechanisms for prevention of, and redress for: (a) Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities; (b) Any action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing them of their lands, territories or resources.”)
The perceived “need” to export this toxic product, which will be burned, further exacerbating climate change, polluting our air and damaging our health is the result of government failure: failure to diversify our economy so that we don’t need to export oil. Successful countries do not need to export oil to be successful. Look at Japan, Singapore and Switzerland. We need to rely less on natural and more on human resources. We should stop being the drug dealer supplying junkies with their oil fixes. This is reminiscent of Britain supplying opium to the Chinese during the opium wars of the mid-1800s. Were I a politician, I might say, “After all, opium farmers and sellers need jobs, too.”
Please don’t permit the export of our oil, but leave it in the ground where it safely belongs. Job creation is important, but not the kind of jobs that are detrimental to our environment and health and that furthermore, provide just short-term employment. How many future generations of Canadians will be employed with this pipeline expansion?
Pipelines may be safer than shipping oil by train, but pipelines are not safe: Kinder Morgan pipelines have exploded and killed people and will put our kids’ health at risk.
Hopefully government will end subsidies for oil companies, as promised two years ago. And hopefully the above declaration is not just another empty promise.
Paul Esslinger, New Westminster
