By Plain Rhetoric

Not only must a law be right, it must also be just

Apr 17, 2018 | 5:00 AM

I WANT TO TALK ABOUT the law and the supposed pipeline constitutional crisis some say we are entering into. I’m talking of course about Kinder Morgan and I’ll begin with a confession: Until recently, I struggled with my own decision on this pipeline.

I tried to read everything that crossed my desk about this issue. I listened to experts from both sides. I read your comments posted on social media. I’ve met landowners traumatized by the prospect of that pipeline going through their property. I’ve talked to welders and labourers excited by and eager to go to work building it. And I’ve listened to business groups extol the benefits of the construction phase of the pipeline.

In the end, I wanted to frame and assess all this information not in the context of what’s in it for me but instead, what about my kids and grandkids and the future of our nation.

The father, the grandfather and the environmentalist in me screams in horror and is certain it is the worst possible thing Canada could do. Yet the Canadian in me; the once young, semi-bilingual resident of Ottawa who in the ’60s, lived through the FLQ terrorist attempt to divide Canada, still tries to look to what is best for our country.

I’ve heard from people who use the law to validate their support of the pipeline. Some even suggest it is a constitutional catastrophe in the making. Yet when pressed they’re unable to explain exactly why this is a constitutional crisis or tell me what law is being broken.

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Yes, there is a serious and complex question on jurisdiction but Canada has a non-political way and place for answering that question and it’s called the Supreme Court of Canada. That’s how we examine and answer questions like this and occasionally the Court’s response ends up changing the law. In fact it is our courts and our democracy that form the traditional and preferred pathway for either validating or changing existing laws.

For example: it was once against the law for women to vote but eventually the injustice and absurdity of that situation was challenged and the laws were changed.

Once, people of colour (a patronizing term once used to define anyone who wasn’t white) couldn’t vote, couldn’t drink water from the same fountain as white people or even sit anywhere in a movie theater they wanted. But thanks to Canadians like Viola Desmond, those laws were changed.

There was a time when we sent all Japanese Canadians to detention camps and stole all their property in the name of the National Interest of Canada.

These acts and others were, in their day, legal but were they right? Do they represent a law that, if reintroduced, you would support today, or do you now see them for the misguided pieces of legislation they once were?

So when I hear people telling me that what BC is doing is illegal I can’t help but wonder how history will judge their actions? In 20 or 50 years we may still be paying off the “nationalization” costs of the pipeline. There may or may not have been a major spill. The market for this oil may have long vanished. And the process leading to the death of our planet may have accelerated as a result of the increase in emissions we initiated in 2018.

Finally, what is this pipeline worth to Kamloops? Our mayor says it is worth $1 million a year in extra tax revenue for Kamloops. He has placed a price tag on our children and grandchildren’s future and it’s a million bucks. Mayor Christian believes it is okay to take a chance and sell their future if someone will give the city a million dollars to buy new things and services.

Once it was legal for young children to work in coalmines. It was profitable for the coal companies but in the process it contributed to devastating injuries, lingering illnesses and even death for many a child miner. Child labour, corporate Canada argued, was legal, so therefore okay, and it took years before a child’s life became more important than profit and do we really want to take a step backwards?

Sometimes laws have to change and it starts with small groups of people willing to ask if the law is just.