Lethal force should never be a premeditated solution when dealing with peaceful protesters; that is not the path forward for our province or our country ~~ Green Party interim leader Adam Olsen
Green Party interim leader Adam Olsen |
The following is the text of a media release from
the BC Green Party:
BC Green Party interim leader MLA Adam Olsen
has been invited by the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs to visit their camps in
northern B.C. this weekend.
“As the new interim leader of the B.C.
Green Party, I believe it is important to be engaged on these issues, and I am
honoured to be invited by the hereditary chiefs into their territory,”
said Olsen, MLA for Saanich-North and the Islands and a member of Tsartlip
First Nation. “My goal is to encourage a peaceful process moving forward. I
have also reached out to meet with the local RCMP detachment”.
“As a member of a party with nonviolence
as a foundational principle, it has been difficult to read the reports coming
out of this dispute. Lethal force should never be a premeditated solution when
dealing with peaceful protesters; that is not the path forward for our province
or our country.”
BC recently passed Bill 41, Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act which created a path forward that respects
the human rights of Indigenous peoples.
“The Coastal Gaslink pipeline and other
projects were approved under a past framework that we have all agreed does not
work, a framework that we rejected when we passed Bill 41 in collaboration with
the First Nations Leadership Council”.
“We cannot use ‘the rule of law’ to shield
us from the new commitments this legislation creates to work with First Nations
governments. Now it is time for governments to show that they stand behind
those principles in a clear and transparent way and to come together with First
Nations to work through these challenges.”
MLA Olsen will arrive in the area Saturday
morning and stay until Sunday evening. He will be escorted by Chief Na’Moks
(John Ridsdale).
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