Rule of Law

Talks with Hereditary Chiefs continue

Jan 22, 2020 | 3:30 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Premier John Horgan was on the hot seat over a decision not to pay a visit to the Wet’suwet’sen Hereditary Chiefs on his Northern tour. He says the trip was planned well before the blockade of the Coast GasLink pipeline project went up, but he was quick to say his door is always open.

“We’ve been having almost weekly meetings. Government to government with the Office of the Wet’suwet’en and the Hereditary leadership to find a way forward on a range of issues,” he told the media during an event in Prince George, “To suggest that that I or my government have been unavailable is not the case.”

In fact, Horgan has sent the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, Scott Fraser, to Smithers to try to reach a resolution.

Horgan has always maintained that the courts have ruled in favour of Coast GasLink and that the rule of law will prevail in this project.

“Well, John has finally come around to my way of thinking,” says Mike Morris, the Official Opposition Critic for the Solicitor General’s office, with a smile. “He should have said this right from the beginning, right from the get-go, instead of sitting so silently. There’s a lot at stake here.”

Morris says he is of the firm belief that only through reconciliation will this matter be resolved.

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