MP Bachrach joins in on Emergency Debate on Relations with Indigenous Peoples framed in the current Wet'suwet'en dispute

"Throughout all of this where was the Federal Government, where was the Prime Minister and his commitment to Reconciliation. The reality is that we talk about changing our relationship with Indigenous people and yet what we see is a reluctance to change anything of the status quo and the way that we do business. And as the blockades have shown that's just not going to fly, we have landed in a predicament that can't be fixed by Police action. If it could have it would have been fixed in January 2019, when the Police arrested and removed fourteen people from the Morice Forest Service Road, or it would have been fixed last month when they did the same thing again" -- MP Taylor Bachrach participating in the Emergency Debate on Indigenous Rights in the House of Commons on Tuesday evening.

Skeena-Bulkley Valley NDP MP Taylor Bachrach, brought some of his recent Social Network messaging to the House of Commons on Tuesday, taking part in the Emergency Debate on Indigenous Rights and sharing some of his observations from his experiences in the Bulkley Valley.

Speaking into the late hours of Tuesday night, much of his narrative included accounts of past land removals from the last century, part of Wet'suwet'en history as recounted to him by elder Sue Alfred of the Wet'suwet'en territory.

Other observations were more current and viewed through Mr. Bachrach's frequent prism of concern over any use of force by the RCMP.

Something which most recently made for the theme of a Facebook statement from December, one which based a significant portion of review on an article published in the British newspaper the Guardian.

Towards the current impasse in the Bulkley Valley, the MP noted how the past is providing for the narrative of a hardening of positions from all sides of the discussion.

"The images of RCMP tactical teams pointing rifles at unarmed Wet'suwet'en  and Gitxsan people, images of Indigenous people being dragged over the very land that their ancestors once walked, the vicious, racist social media commentary that we have seen online in recent days and weeks ... and so much more has sparked a solidarity movement the likes our country has never seen." 

And while he does address many of the themes of the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs, Mr. Bachrach does not spend much time towards the concerns from those Northwest residents and Canadians living beyond the region who have been vocal about the disruptions to rail, roads and port and the impact on work and income.

Nor did he dwell much on the desires of many of the other Indigenous Councils along the route for the gas pipeline to be completed, with many in the past noting the employment and educational benefits that their communities have seen from the project.

Also missing for the most part in his speech to the House of Commons was an understanding of the perception by many Canadians that some of the current Wet'suwet'en discussion has been hijacked by fringe, or radical groups all with their own agendas.

As his guiding theme, the focus for the Skeena-Bulkey Valley MP was to offer the counsel of the need to listen, something that for some who have been impacted by those events may be a rather large ask.

"And so we find ourselves where we are today, when people across the country are blocking the infrastructure that Canadians need in their daily lives for the services they rely on and the products that our lifestyle relies on. We can discount the voices of the people blockading as fringe radicals or radicals, we can choose to discount those voices, or we can listen closely to what Indigenous people on those blockades are saying."

Further to his political notes, he spoke of the difficult colonial history of Canada and the past history of court challenges that have framed much of the current dispute in the Wet'suwet'en territory.

"In the Northwest we have been having the difficult conversations around reconciliation and resource development and respect for Indigenous rights for years. As communities we have started to face the difficult colonial history that has held back our relationship with Indigenous peoples and we have begun to work on how we can work together to be better stewards of the lands and waters and create a future for our children"

For the NDP MP, the solution to the current impasse is through dialogue and understanding, by way of humility and true Nation to Nation talks, calling those discussions of the utmost importance.

Mr. Bachrach appears to dismiss the past Federal narrative that the issue was for the most part a provincial affair and  questioned where the Federal Government was during the process of previous of route selection and negotiations. Noting how the current route had been rejected by the Hereditary chiefs, with their suggestion of an alternate route one that had been rejected by Coastal GasLink.

Key to his speech was a reproach directed to the Federal Government and the Prime Minister and his work towards Reconciliation, which the Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP clearly sees as lacking; once again calling on Prime Minister Trudeau to sit down with the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs to hear their stories.

Towards the ongoing dispute on the Morice Forest Service Road, the Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP's comments from earlier in the debate appear to provide his overall view of the current impasse and what the Government should take from those on the blockade.

"There is too much of a gap between what the government says about Indigenous people and its actions Do we actually grasp the gravity of a situation in which young Indigenous people are telling us that Reconciliation is dead, I'm not sure that we do"

The full speech as part of the Emergency debate can be reviewed below:




For more items of note on the MP's work in Ottawa see our archive page here.

Note: this story has been corrected to reflect Mr. Bachrach's position as Member of Parliament, not as MLA, something which had been incorrectly stated in a portion of the story.