KAMLOOPS — EVERYBODY’S TIP TOEING around this week’s anti-pipeline protest at Thompson Rivers University.
The police, the university, federal bureaucrats and the media are all being very careful not to inflame the situation, to be sure everybody is being treated with “respect.”
There was nothing respectful about the protest, credit for which is being claimed by the indigenous activist group that calls itself the Tiny House Warriors.
There was much yelling and swearing. Red paint was splattered outside at the Campus Activity Centre. The CAC had to be closed; three people were arrested and released.
The incident had similar earmarks to another Tiny House Warriors protest at a provincial park in the North Thompson last summer.
Everybody believes in the right to peaceful protest. It’s part of democracy. We have disagreements and we’re allowed to express them as long as we obey the laws of the land and respect people and property.
If anti-pipeline protesters are trying to get publicity, they are succeeding.
If they’re trying to get themselves arrested, they’re succeeding in that, too.
But if their objective is to gain support for the cause of stopping the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, they are failing miserably. Protests like the one at TRU this week don’t make anyone think more favorably towards the protesters’ point of view.
What the public saw was the disruption of civil discourse at an institution of learning.
It makes the public feel that anyone convicted in connection with such tactics needs to be dealt with severely by the law.
But, at the end of the day, the best possible response would be to ignore the whole thing, and let the protesters do their yelling and swearing in a vacuum.
I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.
Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
