LETTER – Council could provide positive leadership on reconciliation
(Image: Kinder Morgan)
Dear Mayor Ken Christian and Kamloops Council,
After having been assured in recent emails from several councillors that the City of Kamloops is an enthusiastic supporter of reconciliation with First Nations, I wish to point out a city action that is a glaring inconsistency with this position and ask you to act to correct this.
Mayor Christian went on the public record this June in support of the beginning of construction of the proposed Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion, but this is a highly questionable and somewhat inflammatory position in light of legal challenges by First Nations which have yet to be resolved.
The current situation, with the imminent beginning of construction now already set for the pipeline expansion, is a patently unfair travesty of justice in that substantial and credible legal appeals from six First Nations — not the least of which being the Stk’emlupsemc te Secwepemc of the Secwepemc Nation (SSN) – have been recently approved but not yet heard by the Federal Court of Appeal.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tmx-legal-challenges-1.5269605
The City of Kamloops, instead of promoting the shameful colonial steamroller mentality of pipeline owner the Government of Canada, could instead take the opportunity to provide positive leadership in bringing a spirit of reconciliation to this unhappy situation with a new public stance stating that Council will not agree to the beginning of pipeline expansion construction activities within the Kamloops jurisdiction until such a time as the outstanding First Nations major legal challenges are fully resolved.
I would respectfully suggest that such a formal statement, if conveyed to appropriate federal and provincial officials, First Nations, and the Trans Mountain Corporation, has the potential to have a large and positive impact all around. Plus, it is the right thing to do!
JOHN McNAMER
Kamloops homeowner
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Agreed John.: Council must step up and publicly and loudly defend the long sought after reconciliation. The problem seems to be that the courts will not enforce the fullness of effective reconciliation. It’s past due !!!
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I totally agree with Mr. McNamer. The colonial mentality of the present federal government that it will take only time to justify the leapfrogging of pipeline construction prior to judicial permission reveals the shallowness of our PM’s view of reconciliation.
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