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The following is a letter by Hamilton 350 member Don McLean published in the Hamilton Spectator on January 12, 2019, in response to the article "Rally in support of BC First Nations Pipeline Protest," that appeared in the January 9 edition of the paper.  How did Canada get into such a position? Our governments send a militarized RCMP to arrest indigenous residents in the wilderness of northern British Columbia. They do this to support construction of a 760 kilometre pipeline running the full width of the province that will wreak environmental havoc on largely pristine lands.
The pipeline is being built to carry natural gas destined for foreign markets. The gas is being obtained by fracking - an industrial process that intentionally pollutes both surface and ground water. The surface waters are first contaminated with chemicals and other materials, and then pumped into the earth where they permanently contaminate ground water. The pumping is hard enough to often trigger earthquakes because the companies want to fracture underground formations to ‘release’ fossil oil and gas so they can extract and sell it. The outcome of this intentional water pollution is also pollute the air by burning the oil and gas even though the world’s scientists have repeatedly warned this will further destabilize earth's climate and worsen already devastating extreme weather damages. Why isn’t the RCMP sent to arrest the frackers and the pipeline builders? It is their profit-driven activities which clearly damage the public good, not the brave people trying to stop this madness. Don McLean |
