VICTORIA, B.C. - B.C. 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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