The Controversial Alberta Bill

Back in 2020 shortly after the massive protests that broke out across Canada caused by the Wetʼsuwetʼen first nation out of protest against the Costal link pipeline the Alberta government passed Bill One or the Critical infrastructure defense act. What makes it controversial is that it introduces criminal penalties for the destruction of critical infrastructure in Alberta and also introduces fines for committing the acts. The people who engaged in these acts of protest claim that this bill infringes on their right to protest as one of the articles of the bill would see fines put on them for even blocking an essential infrastructure project.

To fully understand how the protests began you have to go back to 2018 when the company that owned the Costal Link pipeline attempted to negotiate with the hereditary chiefs of the Wetsuwet First Nation. They immediately turned down the proposal of the Pipeline citing fears that it would damage the environment around the lands which they already controlled. The project of course moved ahead with the company getting approval from the government. This sparked outrage inside the First Nation and they immediately set out along with some environmental protestors and began to block the progress of the project which caused the company to go to the government and get a court injunction. The injunction passed and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were brought in to carry out the order and remove the protestors and indigenous people protesting the project.

I think this is where the protest should have ended the oil company managed to convince the BC supreme court to get an injunction to remove the protestors so legally they did nothing wrong accept that the government did not respect the rights of the indigenous protestors. I agree that the First Nations have a right to defend the land which they own which everyone should have the right to do it is what happens next which I don't think was necessary as they could have consulted the Federal government. Instead they decided to take their protest across Canada and began with the help of other protesters to block critical infrastructure such as, the Railway and other areas across Canada. The blockades caused by the protestors began to disrupt supply across Canada and companies began to lay off its working force because of the protests this was all before the outbreak of COVID 19. Response to the blockades was slow in that it took a while for the court to issue an injunction that would end the protests that were occurring across the nation.

The protestors did attempt to set up a blockade in parts of Alberta but the people and government acted fairly quickly and tore down the blockades while it continued in other parts of Canada. This brings us back to the introduction of Bill One in Alberta which aims to prevent this sort of incident from happening again as it damaged the Canadian economy and as mentioned before put people out of work. On the Federal side of the spectrum the Liberal Party seems to have done little to prevent the same situation from occurring again instead they settled for recognizing the land claims of the First Nation which is good in that they want to protect the rights of others but feels to fall short.

If I were a businessman who owned a large company that wanted to set up shop in Canada and transport my products across the nation I would consider looking elsewhere to conduct my business as it seems that the Federal government would not care about my interests. This is why I think the Alberta government is taking the correct steps in preventing this sort of behavior from occurring in the future by introducing a financial penalty for the offense that would make it costly for any protestor that wants to hinder the progress of important infrastructure.