Thoughts on BC Politics and More

Gordon Wilson Customary law must not be permitted to subjugate statutory authority The media is reporting that Carolyn Bennett, Federal Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Scott Fraser, BC Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, have reached some form of accommodation with five men who assert their authority as hereditary chiefs by way of customary Wet’suwet’en law. No one seems to have noticed that Wet’suwet’en hereditary authority is matriarchal. Where are the women? And how is this customary law when the leaders are all men? The governments of Canada and British Columbia should keep top-of-mind that the authority of these five hereditary chiefs is disputed by the hereditary chiefs of other Wet’suwet’en houses as well as duly elected Chief and Council. No details have been released on what this accommodation might include, but we are led to believe that the terms will reference much more than an agreement on ...

To say there's an elephant in the room doesn't sound Canadian, so let me say instead, there's a large bull moose stomping all over the federal election trail. Ignored for the most part until recently, it raised its horny head when one of the federal leaders slipped on a patty it left on the trail. The moose is of course the division of powers between the federal government and the provinces, and while it has frequented election campaigns throughout our history, rarely has it been so belligerent or poised to do so much damage. When I hear a federal leader, regardless of his or her electoral prospects, glibly say he will give provincial premiers veto over national projects, I am concerned. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said that his government would give veto powers to the provinces over major federal infrastructure projects such as pipelines. What he didn’t tell the voters is how he intended to do that. In order for Singh to grant such power to the ...