Indigenous

As I write this article, all the headlines on Canada’s news websites are dominated by COVID-19, rapidly dropping oil prices and the possibility of the economy opening up again. You could be forgiven for assuming that everything to do with the dispute a few kilometres down the Morice West Forest Service Road in northern B.C. must be done and settled. After all, if media coverage has moved on, everything must be okay now, right?

There were no winners in the 2019 federal election. Members of parliament are reconvening on Parliament Hill like a classroom of chastened schoolboys after an embarrassing noon-hour brawl, not as respected political leaders. The country, however, might benefit from a more somber, careful approach to public policy and decision-making. All parties have a social license to discard petty promises they made to court certain groups of voters and to focus instead on the big challenges facing Canada. Many commentators predict small steps, but there is reason to suggest that bold actions in a number of areas is what it will take for a clear political win in the next election.

Unless you are sleeping, distracted by wildlife or on your phone, it is impossible to miss the sign along one stretch of Highway 16 that reads: “Girls don’t hitchhike along the Highway of Tears.” It is bright yellow and bears the faces of three women, beside what used to read “Killer on the Loose.”

On June 18 the federal government will announce a final decision on the future of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX), a project which will triple the flow of oil travelling 1,150 kilometres by pipe from Alberta’s oil patch to tankers on B.C.’s coast.