Re: “Protesters should find another cause,” Letters, March 5
I am always amazed when someone puts their name to a letter filled with bizarre notions, misinformation and downright ignorance. Case in point is the letter printed last week regarding the solidarity fundraiser in Nelson put on by the volunteer group Kootenays for a Pipeline Free BC.
The letter implied that it is illegal for people to defend the environment. Not in a democracy. They also “guessed” that “local paid protesters need the work”. What nonsense. They guessed wrong. The organizers are volunteers who have a social conscience and want to make a difference in their world (which goes beyond the Kootenays).
It is clear that the author of that opinion has never spoken with any concerned citizen involved in the defence of our natural surroundings against the combined weight of the current government and their friends in the extraction industry.
The author also stated that pipelines will create thousands of jobs and provide billions to our economy. Where did they get that idea? Perhaps they assumed that from the bombardment of paid ads by the collection of oil companies, trying to sell us on the idea that their profits are good for us.
Try checking out some independent assessments of those claims and weigh any negligible benefit against the costs to taxpayers of cleaning up the spills that companies refuse to deal with.
The fundraiser is a wonderful way for people who care about this planet to show support for those who are actively protecting land rights. They understand the danger of the pipeline (look at the news over the past ten years and see how many leaks were eventually reported and whether the damage was ever reversed).
They are conscientious people who don’t want the eventual environmental catastrophe that a bitumen leak would wreak on their lands and the people and wildlife that depend on a clean environment.
The pipelines have little to do with our needs. They have everything to do with providing a hideous product to an Asian market to make oil companies rich and we in turn will be able to purchase the resulting products as plastic trinkets at Walmart.
I just decided to purchase a ticket to go to the fundraiser.
Joanne Miller
Castlegar