RE:Pipelines & Indigenous CommunitiesHappy Father's Day back at ya Dibah!
Agreed that it sounds great in principle to have the ICs as you call them around the table. The practical issue is that there are so very many ICs - and all you need is to have one group against the pipeline regardless of whether you have 35 in favour. And sometimes it is even more complicated - like with TRP's Coastal Gas Link pipeline where they had ALL of the elected tribal councils along the route in favour but just one Hereditary Chief of the Whatsoever Tribe pulled the plug - and triggered nation-wide rail blockades, etc. So for it to really be a done deal, PPL will have to have each and every IC - including elected and hereditary - in the path of the pipeline around the table. Good luck with that!
Also, our media will always highlight the one dissenting group and "forget" to mention the 35 groups in favour of the pipeline!
Cheers!
Dibah420 wrote: It shouldn't take a genius to conclude that in order for a project to succeed it's best to have IC's around the table than manning protest barriers.
The Brits in colonial India thought they could get away with appointing a few Indians as advisors and consultants to the Viceroy and calling it local representation. Such advisory commitees seldom had any genuine power, which remained exclusively with the Raj.
So it is refreshing to learn how creative Mick Dilger and David Jimmie have been in their collaboration; a partnership of mutual respect and fairness.
Dilger's statement, nonetheless, puzzled me slightly:
"Partnership with First Nations is not a necessity to get major infrastructure built – but community and government support is, Mr. Dilger said."
While not a necessity, isn't partnership the most expedient way to community support?
Would Jimmie, once an arch foe of pipelines, have come around except as a partner?
The next time a Bill McKibben appears in chains, the best counter would not be the Mounties, or a Trudeau or a Chrystia Freeland.
It would be David Jimmie.
Cheers, and hope your'e all enjoying a fabulous Fathers' Day weekend.