CBC Radio's The House: Feb. 22, 2020
Here's more from this week's episode of The House
Blair 'hopeful' for peaceful end to blockades
Public Safety Minister Bill Blair joined host Chris Hall on Friday, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for an end to the rail blockades.
"The police have learned the lessons of Ipperwash, Caledonia, Oka and many other incidents, and they've applied that into their training, into their policies, into their procedures," Blair told The House.
"And what it does mean, is — they will try, through dialogue and every possible means, to resolve this as peaceably as they can. But at the same time, it is their responsibility to uphold the law."
Trudeau's call to end blockades 'disappointing,' Wet'suwet'en member says
Trudeau's remarks Friday calling rail line blockades across the country "unacceptable and untenable" came as a frustration to Karla Tait, a member of the Unist'ot'en house group.
Tait was among those arrested on Wet'suwet'en territory in British Columbia earlier this month.
"It was a really disappointing announcement, to say the least," Tait told host Chris Hall. "We recognize that [the past] two weeks has been a challenge for everybody in Canada, and it's been just as difficult on us awaiting a peaceful resolution."
Teck decision expected next week, Carr says
Former Natural Resources minister Jim Carr says the fate of the proposed Teck Frontier oilsands mine will be decided next week, setting the table for another potential showdown over an oil and gas project in Canada.
"I believe that when the decision is made, the arguments will be advanced why it is in the public interest and the national interest," Carr told The House. "And always and ultimately, Canadians will decide if they agree."
But Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith warned that Canada won't reach its 2050 net-zero emissions target if the project is approved.
"When you look at this project, when you look at the climate commitments specifically, I think it's a pretty easy 'no,'" Erskine-Smith told The House's Hall.
Wet'suwet'en dispute evokes memories of Oka crisis
Waneek Horn-Miller was 14 years old when she was stabbed during the Oka crisis in the summer of 1990. Thirty years later, Horn-Miller is now following countrywide protests sparked by opposition to a natural gas pipeline on Wet'suwet'en traditional territory in northern British Columbia.
She told The House that she was looking through old photos of the crisis this week.
"That reminder of just the hate that bubbled to the surface, this anger … we were being called terrorists when we weren't bringing terror to anybody," she said. "We weren't exerting any kind of aggression towards anybody else. The terror was being brought to us."
The next generation of black policymakers
As Black History Month enters its final week, The House sets its sights on a new effort to diversify the people crafting policies in Canada.
A group called Operation Black Vote Canada is hoping to tackle the issue this year by launching a new fellowship program to help prepare young black Canadians for careers as policymakers at all levels of government.
Velma Morgan, chair of the group, joined host Chris Hall this month to talk about making space for more black voices at the table.
