(no subject)
Feb. 12th, 2020 03:38 pmThe backdrop to all this week (if I don't record it I won't be able to anchor it in time in the future) is a series of protests and other actions with regards to control of land in the Interior (somewhat west of me, I'm not in the specific territory under discussion).
A pipeline has been planned to go through and at least a significant faction of the people indigenous to that area are very opposed. They've been working on significant peaceful resistance for a number of years through various strategies. The many labyrinthine branches and levels of Canadian/British Columbian government are not all in agreement as to what should be done.
For work I spend time immersed in a lot of legal reading, and Tsilhqot'in and Delgamuukw are fairly snappy and straightforward reads.
Also at issue is the question of who leads the particular indigenous group: whether a colonially-imposed democratic system or a pre-contact traditional system has jurisdiction.
I have a bunch to say about this and perhaps I should write it out at some point. I'm enormously sympathetic to anyone who has a personal, cultural, or spiritual relationship to a particular piece of land. I'm also-- well, I can see government workings from the inside right now and doing anything with it is probably like trying to carry six tons of cooked spaghetti in your arms: there's too much and everything goes all which way no matter what you try. That said, there's a lot moving very fast to support aboriginal land rights currently, things which are establishing groundwork for much more flashy and visible things down the road. I end up being too moderate for any particular side of the general discussion: both those who want full indigenous government with no settler representation starting yesterday and those who want full settler government with no non-assimilated representation.
The point of this post is that the protests have been shutting down trains, highways, bridges, and the legislature and throne speech so far. The whole thing has also kind of shut down my facebook: I prefer to paraphrase rather than share information but anything I do share -- related or not -- is getting set to private security settings after the fact so no one gets to read about my current interest in regenerative agriculture or some kind soul in Wuhan who's feeding cats of quarantined folks. Friday the call is to protest at government buildings.
I am very happy to respect this protest; it would be the first where I need to make that decision. But I'm not sure what to do in the (likely) case that I arrive at work and protesters arrive later in the morning or in the afternoon. Is one supposed to leave the building at that point and drive (out) through folks?
I guess we'll see how it goes. But that's the backdrop to all the geese and trailers breaking down and PTSD angst and whatnot.
A pipeline has been planned to go through and at least a significant faction of the people indigenous to that area are very opposed. They've been working on significant peaceful resistance for a number of years through various strategies. The many labyrinthine branches and levels of Canadian/British Columbian government are not all in agreement as to what should be done.
For work I spend time immersed in a lot of legal reading, and Tsilhqot'in and Delgamuukw are fairly snappy and straightforward reads.
Also at issue is the question of who leads the particular indigenous group: whether a colonially-imposed democratic system or a pre-contact traditional system has jurisdiction.
I have a bunch to say about this and perhaps I should write it out at some point. I'm enormously sympathetic to anyone who has a personal, cultural, or spiritual relationship to a particular piece of land. I'm also-- well, I can see government workings from the inside right now and doing anything with it is probably like trying to carry six tons of cooked spaghetti in your arms: there's too much and everything goes all which way no matter what you try. That said, there's a lot moving very fast to support aboriginal land rights currently, things which are establishing groundwork for much more flashy and visible things down the road. I end up being too moderate for any particular side of the general discussion: both those who want full indigenous government with no settler representation starting yesterday and those who want full settler government with no non-assimilated representation.
The point of this post is that the protests have been shutting down trains, highways, bridges, and the legislature and throne speech so far. The whole thing has also kind of shut down my facebook: I prefer to paraphrase rather than share information but anything I do share -- related or not -- is getting set to private security settings after the fact so no one gets to read about my current interest in regenerative agriculture or some kind soul in Wuhan who's feeding cats of quarantined folks. Friday the call is to protest at government buildings.
I am very happy to respect this protest; it would be the first where I need to make that decision. But I'm not sure what to do in the (likely) case that I arrive at work and protesters arrive later in the morning or in the afternoon. Is one supposed to leave the building at that point and drive (out) through folks?
I guess we'll see how it goes. But that's the backdrop to all the geese and trailers breaking down and PTSD angst and whatnot.