So far this year, you could call 2020 the year of the protest. Or the year of the blockade.
We’ve had the blockade by Unifor employees at the Co-op Refinery Complex in Regina. The employees were ready to go on strike, but the co-op beat them to the punch by locking them out.
It reached the point where a mediator has been brought in – Vince Ready, a heavyweight from B.C. who I remember frequently serving as a mediator when I was a kid.
Unifor’s conduct during this work stoppage has been widely panned, to the point in which only the biggest union supporters seem to still be supporting them. They’ve been found guilty of contempt of court and fined; frankly, they’re lucky the fines weren’t much higher.
In Eastern Canada, we’ve seen a protest on Tyendinaga Mohawk traditional territory that has halted freight and passenger traffic between Toronto and Montreal. It became so bad that CN Rail stopped service in its Eastern Canada railway network.
This is obviously bad news for our economy. That trade route has an essential role to play for Canada, and the impacts are felt outside of Toronto and Montreal.
And during my recent vacation to B.C., there’s been talk about the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and their supporters, who were blocking construction of the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline, a key part of the $40-billion LNG Canada export project.
It’s reached the point where the protesters were setting up in front of the B.C. legislature and other buildings.
What these protesters fail to recongize that this is a fantastic opportunity, that this pipeline will create jobs and there is more to be gained from allowing the project than by setting up a protest.
Now, let’s be clear on a few things. Most Unifor employees at the co-op refinery are good, law-abiding people who are happy and proud to have their jobs. And you can be sure that a lot of the people responsible for the blockade, the contempt of court and other alleged illegal actions are not employees of the co-op refinery.
My guess is a lot of co-op refinery employees have been pretty frustrated with this work stoppage, and how the actions of some, including those who are supposed to be leaders, have embarrassed the union.
Also, there are lots of wonderful Indigenous people in this country. I want to see an Indigenous community that is engaged and part of the workplace. And you’re seeing growing Indigenous support for projects such as pipelines, because they recognize the benefits of pipeline projects for the economy, and the jobs they create.
For critics of Indigenous people, these protests and blockades have only fuelled stereotypes, which is an unfortunate aspect of these protests.
I have no problem with those who choose to protest. You want to protest? Great. Do so in a legal fashion. You want to protest? Fine. But don’t do so in a way that makes the general public roll their eyes. Many of these protests leave people asking a pertinent question: “Don’t these people have more important things to do?”
And why have the protests in recent years become punch lines?
Remember the Occupy Movement of 2011 and 2012, with it’s battle cry of “We are the 99 per cent?” The only thing they represented was lazy, unemployed and entitled whiners.
Remember the Idle No More movement of 2012? It did absolutely nothing to bring positive change for Indigenous people, although that’s partially because Idle No More’s catalyst, Theresa Spence, was the wrong person to rally around.
We had protests centred around Greta Thunberg that made you wonder why she isn’t in school. If I was in high school and I skipped school to protest, I’d be grounded for weeks.
But at least the Greta Thunberg protests generally followed the rule of law.
It’s time for protesters to respect the law. It’s time for them to realize they have a right and a place, but laws are more important and our economy takes priority as well.
It’s more important for Saskatchewan ambulances to have access to fuel to get to people and to save lives, than for locked out employees to set up a blockade in Regina.
It’s more important for CN Rail to have access to their eastern route, and for Via Rail to get passengers from one area to another, than to have a blockade.
Law enforcement has been criticized for the way in which they handled the Co-op Refinery blockade, and justifiably so. At the same time, when they took in Unifor national president Jerry Dias, they made him a martyr for Unifor and ardent labour supporters, and they’ve been trying to avoid a repeat.
There are right ways to go about things, and there are wrong ways. Demonstrate against the government? Great. But remember that there is still a country to run, there is still an economy to run and there might be millions of people relying on a vital trade routes across the country.
