Three NDP Members of Parliament have signed a petition deploring the arrest of protesters who blocked access to the Coastal GasLink Pipeline worksite in northern B.C.
They are also angered that B.C.’s NDP government has not stepped forward to halt the arrests.
Their main complaint is that this police action is yet another instance of colonialism at its worst. They also portray it as an act of violence against the Wet’suwet’en First Nation, across whose traditional territory the pipeline is being built.
For old time’s sake, let’s start with the facts. The police action to remove the protesters followed two successive court injunctions. It was not “colonialism;” it was basic law enforcement.
Anyone who believes our courts are insensitive to Aboriginal rights hasn’t been watching the labyrinthine process through which every such project must pass.
More than that, the pipeline has the approval of 20 elected First Nation band councils, including the Wet’suwet’en band council itself.
Yet here we have members of Parliament, sworn to uphold the law, urging lawlessness and disparaging the court system.
However, the issue I want to focus on is the charge of colonialism. Remarkably, this claim is being advanced by three members of an institution that owes its very existence to colonialism and empire building — the House of Commons.
A little history might help. Canada’s Parliament is a direct descendant of the British version that ruled the waves. Indeed, borrowing from Gilbert and Sullivan, it is the very model of a British institution.
Consider the rites it performs. Every year, the government’s plan of action is laid out in a “Speech from the Throne,” delivered not by the prime minister or the Speaker of the House.
No, it’s delivered by the Governor General, who, upon appointment, swears “that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors.”
The same oath is sworn by every federal and provincial minister of the Crown, though I recall hearing newly appointed Conservative MLAs in Regina many years ago swearing allegiance to that august lady’s “hairs.”
More than that, every act of Parliament requires the assent of a monarch who styles herself “Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of her other realms and territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.”
Which “territory” does she lay claim to? Canada. Which faith does she defend? The Church of England.
So here we have three MPs seated at the Queen’s table, acting as the Queen’s servants, drawing the Queen’s shilling, while complaining about colonialism.
Although they draw quite a bit more than a shilling. The base salary for an MP is $185,000, and most get add-ons for serving on numerous committees, the purpose of which is to provide each and every one of them a trough.
Then there are lavish pensions, running frequently into six figures.
You’ve got to hand it to them. That kind of insouciance takes nerve.
If our virtue-signalling MPs really believed their rhetoric, they’d resign their seats, saving taxpayers millions, and join the protesters on the picket line.
But don’t count on it. Hypocrisy is the very wellspring of parliamentary privilege.
What we have here is a tale, told by three idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
