Justice and Reconciliation Are Not the Same Thing

 I understand that it is not the role of our legal system to ensure that the optics are good. I understand that our laws requires one to be judge by "our peers". I understand that it is appropriate to accept that it is better that ten guilty persons go free rather than an innocent man be jailed. I understand that the issue of "intent" is critical to a finding of anyone being guilty of a crime. BUT it seems to me that when one individual goes and gets a gun, fires it (even if just in the air) and then regardless of whether he thought the gun was empty or not, points that gun in the direction of someone, with their finger on the trigger - they must be guilty of something when that gun fires "accidently" and a person is killed.

 A jury yesterday found Gerald Stanley innocent in the death of Colten Boushie. The backgrounds of the individuals and the generally accepted facts are available on various sites. From a very outside observer it is not entirely clear what happened. Regardless - after a surprisingly brief trial - yesterday an all white jury found Stanley innocent of second degree murder. Understandably, Boushie's family, friends and his whole community are saddened alarmed, depressed and angry at this outcome.

For those people, and for the thousands of people across Canada who have followed this story and who are saddened by the jury's findings - we are left with the sense that everything would have been different if Boushie had not been an Indigenous Canadian.  He would not have been shot, and if he had - the trial and its outcome would have been different. Whether it is true or not, we are all left with the sense that the trial, with an all white cast of judge, prosecutor and defence lawyer, the all white jury found "one of their own" innocent in the killing of someone from another race. In light of the cultural genocide directed by the bureaucrats, politicians and do-gooders of this country that has been ongoing for the past 150 years, it is hard to find any other interpretation.

 

The result of this trial will, to some, prove that reconciliation cannot happen, that systemic racism is so ingrained into our systems that it will always exist until those systems are thrown out and something new developed; that we (those of us who are of European descent) are through and through racists, never to change. From my perception - those who think that are wrong. The changes that are occurring are painfully slow, and there are times when it feels as if any progress has not only stopped but has reversed itself. It is a continual embarrassment to all Canadians.  I do however, take some satisfaction in the fact that whereas 30 years ago the case would have not been national news, that people would not have wanted to even discuss it - that today there are protest occurring across the country. That thousands of Canadians - Indigenous and non-indigenous alike are offended and are prepared to speak out. We can change and we will.

I don't have any suggestions as to what should have happened - I am not too sure if there was anything anyone that could have been done to get a different outcome. (I do wonder if a different crown attorney would have been more aggressive or if there was information that the judge did not allow into the record) but there is something that Gerald Stanley can do. He could quietly, without lawyers or the media approach the elders of Colten Boushie's community and ask them what he could do to demonstrate his sorrow and his regret. He could offer to work with them to somehow repair the damage his actions have done.

The trial was never about reconciliation - trials are a legal process imported from another country, developed through time to give a black or white answer. Reconciliation is about the gray areas. It is talking about things that cannot be easily defined, it is about feelings of loss, of hurt and of being made to feel separate. Those things can only be addressed when one individual talks with openness to another.

Perhaps it is time for Stanley to do that.

One-Upmanship

Both the Premier of Alberta, Rachel Notley and of Premier John Horgan from B.C.  are engaged in a rather silly game of one-upmanship solely to look good for their constituents. Whether or not their antics will have any effect upon if or when the pipeline gets built is anyone guess. At a quick glance it is hard to see how either creating provincial policies that limit the transit of bitumen or the importation of BC wine into Alberta will have much effect at all. 

From Notley's perspective, I would guess that she has little choice but to do everything she can to ensure that a pipeline gets built to somewhere. Getting oil out of the ground is Alberta's major industry. With the exception of agriculture, Alberta has no other significant industries. Without oil/gas production Alberta has no capacity to produce sufficient funds to support its schools and hospitals. While there is no doubt that having a provincial income tax would be  helpful - such taxes only generate income if people have money to buy stuff. Alberta has struggled for the past few years trying to develop other types of industries but it has been challenging. For well over half a century Alberta's entire infrastructure has been based on oil. Thousands of people have been convinced to move to that province because Canadians needed access to oil - we needed it to travel and to heat our houses.  

In fact almost everyone has benefited from that oil production: from the pipe welders who have made more money there than they could have anywhere else, to the families in the Maritimes who were supported as their men folk worked the oil fields, to all Canadians whose services were at least partially funded from oil money raised by both the federal and provincial government through taxes and through balance of trade payments. It is worth noting that Canadians did not suffer the effects of the last major recession at least initially because our economy was strong - bolstered by our oil sales. It is understandable that Notley and other Albertans are frustrated that no one seems to want to have their oil be transported across the country. Central Canada has clearly rejected the concept of both pipelines and rail transport and now it appears as if BC has drawn a clear line in the sand - saying no to oil flowing to the coast. It is the height of NIMBY that it appears the only solution that might alleviate the stress is if our neighbours to the south allow their pipeline to be built and therefore accept all of the risks.

On the other hand, Premier Horgan has an equally difficult problem. Letting three times as much oil get to the coastal ports will not generate a significant amount of tax revenue. There is almost no benefit to BC. As well there are thousands of BC residents prepared to protest both the construction of additional pipeline capacity through sensitive/vulnerable terrain and the risk that an increase in the number of tankers parading up and down the coastline will bring to the shore of the Pacific Ocean.  To make things more complicated there are some Indigenous communities who are supporting the construction and some that are not. Hogan has little choice but to at least look as if he is prepared to block any new construction. If he does not, the three member Green Party who hold the balance of power, have threatened to withdraw their support - and thereby causing an election. I am quite sure that Hogan is desperately praying that someone else will take responsibility for the decision - ideally the federal government or the courts. That way he can blame someone else.

Similarly Notley from Alberta, who I suspect is the "greenest" of the bunch of them, would like someone else to make the decision so that during the next election she can have a highly visible enemy to tilt at - which maybe her only strategy to win the next election.

This is a Canadian problem - we need to recognize that the cost of not doing anything or doing something are equally as high. If Canadians are prepared to accept that a province should be relegated to "have not" status, then we should be prepared to pay for it which would in part mean invest billions of dollars into Alberta to create other industries. If Canadians accept that the inherent risk of transporting oil products (not if but when) are worthwhile because the benefits are significant, then we need to be prepared to invest to billions of dollars into building the best oil spill prevention systems in the world.

No matter what the decision is - someone will be hurt. Our only real question is who.

Traveling Dreams

In the past, when I lived in Ontario during the winter months, during those dark cold days of February, when the possibility of long, bright, warm sunny days were only a remote, barely possible fantasy, I would start to dream of standing on the side of the road with my thumb out; of the myriad of spots that I had stood before, some of them ten or more times. I dreamed of getting the perfect ride; of the conversations that I have had/would have in the future. I would dream of spots that I would sleep at, of Husky gas stations where I had grab a quick sandwich and some more water; or of that sudden excitement as I round that one corner somewhere just west of Calgary and the first of the mountains show their peaks, or specific moment when I first glimpse the shores of Vancouver Island. These dreams are what sustained me in those cold dark nights and they are what made me delightfully vulnerable to a sudden attack of spring fever on the first day of near spring. 

Last year I didn't have those dreams, or at least not in the intensity of other years. I publically bemoaned the fact that because Vancouver Island does not have seasons in the same way as does central Canada, that because winter is not as harsh - that perhaps my lust to hitchhike was reduced, that there was less psychological need to escape if only in my dreams. I missed those dreams.

I am glad to say - the dreams are back. I find myself looking at transport trucks as they pass through town and having to remember to pay attention to my own driving. I have to almost literally shake myself awake as I slip into a day dream as I am writing or reading or spinning, as I realize that I have gone off somewhere in my mind - dreaming of the perfect ride or of those extraordinary conversations. It feels delightful.

I am not sure why the dreams have come back at such intensity or even so early. The weather has been normal here - wet and grey most of the time with only occasionally glimpses of the sun. If there is a promise of an early and noticeable spring - I am not aware of it.  I perhaps have been more aware this year of the geese flying north, of their calls that when large flocks fly over my house it sounds almost there are a bunch of kids dancing in the distance, but I don't think that would be enough. It may be that I am considering going north to the Yukon - to complete my tour of Canada that is accessible by road and the sheer thought of such a trip is enough to stir my dormant hitchhiking dreams.

Regardless of why - I am glad that in the darkness of the early morning hours, or during the quiet times of my life - I can escape into a delightful fantasy that every summer for the last 15-16 years has come true.