Should Canada lose the UK monarchy?

The death of Queen Elizabeth has prompted The Tyee's 'quick quiz' poll asking if we think Canada should cut ties with the monarchy - @ this link:

https://thetyee.ca/Polls/2022/09/08/Canada-Cut-Ties-Monarchy/?results=true#poll-results

Here's my - kinda lengthy! - (optional) comment explaining why we must CUT THE CORD🤞 (esp. now that Charles the adulterer & his 'queen' are in)

Consider the following truths, which flowed from the gut - & the heart - because keeping well-informed is as essential to me now as breathing..

Canada's govts all talk about 'Reconciliation' without owning the genocidal atrocities VS. 1st Nations people by colonisation - carried out "by the Queen's men". 

Decolonization & honoring U.N.D.R.I.P. are ways to properly "reconcile" with FNs -- by addressing not just burying/ denouncing early colonial Govts' widespread land grabs (= why FN kids were forcibly removed from their families/ homes & put into jail-like residential schools that condemned & replaced their ancestral FN oral histories/ truths with Govts' false narratives of 'valid' control..) 

White 'settlers' were the main beneficiaries of colonial Govts' land-grabs/ power theft, while FNs were victimized & vilified, & corralled into Govt-ordered 'reservations'. Unlike other provinces, BC's founding officials didn't bother signing treaties for unceded FN land - they just appropriated & began enriching themselves by their unsustainable development/ extraction.. 

Colonial Govt-ordered apartheid/ oppression/ segregation of residential schools & reservations produced new generations of compliant Anglicized FN who returned as foreigners to their families, stripped of their elders' culture/ knowledge/ language/ traditions.. 

Many other FN kids were adopted by WASP families in an underhanded process that confirmed Govts' total disdain for indigenous rights - eg. the '60s scoop', info on which most non-indigenous citizens - & possibly many FN - are woefully ignorant.. 

Fast-forward to today & the past few years of Govt-claimed Reconciliation: 

●While backing assimilated pro-logging, pro-industry FN bands, the BC-NDP has steadfastly ignored legit opposition by hereditary FN leaders (jurisdiction holders of vast territories outside of bands, affirmed by the Supreme Court) to industrial mega-projects like CGL pipeline built thru their lands without consent; 

●Govt's automatic response to rightful FN protection of their own lands VS. CGL's many ongoing violations (reported on BC Govt's website: LOOK IT UP & be appalled!) has been to send in RCMP troops in military gear to suppress their eco-activist-backed peaceful protests - by all accounts, the same-old ugly harassment, intimidation & violence as b4.. despite BC-NDP's adoption of U.N.D.R.I.P. into BC law.. 

(It's to hereditary FNs' credit that they've resisted cont'd colonial oppression/ victimization & kept their cultural values, to inspire 'land protectors' of all stripes fighting for healthy communities & ecosystems against all odds: RESPECT)

 Point is, our Govts (& main 3 political parties) have been hypocrites & liars favoring polluting big-industry/ globalization over interests of citizens & communities for too long.. & still push ecocidal, risky & polluting projects on Crown land - in which the Queen has never intervened or shown concern. Clearly, they don't care about Cdns - & it shows. That's unacceptable in 2022! 

Yet when elected, officials pledge allegiance to the Queen instead of to serving their constituents, giving Govts even more of an excuse to work for corporations & not people. A true democracy is governed by its people - not answerable to a distant uninterested monarchy or any other entity.. 

Canada must be the only British colony that hasn't requested independence from the Crown!  And that's a sad reflection of Cdns' apathy/ complacency - of which our govts have taken enough advantage (ie. Screwed us over repeatedly!) 

We have never been so desperate as now to have the Greens - with or without a distant monarchy - lead Canada toward a better, healthier & happier destiny for everyone - but esp. for our kids & future generations...

(Let that sink in)

My reply to BC Greens' 'leadership' email..

- in which i shouLd have included my outrage at BC Govt's gross inaction RE. Coastal Gas Link's trespassing on unceded Wet'suwet'en territory, as succinctly explained by DogwoodBC:

B.C. is refusing to meet with Wet'suwet'en chiefs, and is instead passing off the responsibility to the very pipeline company trespassing on the Indigenous community's land. Where is B.C.'s newly promised approach to respecting Indigenous rights and title 

[REF.: thetyee.ca/News/Wetsuweten-Chiefs-Government-Talks ]

UPDATES:  thetyee.ca/Newsearch

Re:  BCGreens Leadership Contest 2020

Jan. 7th, 2020

Dear Adam Olsen,

Thanks for your email.  As an active supporter of the BCGREENS for the past decade+, I feel my continuing activism on your party’s behalf has helped contribute to its increased successes. While further advancing GREENS’ policies/values is bound to enable the huge shifts needed for effective climate action, the latest in-party structural shifts appear to have stalled the necessary progress..

TBH I’m extremely discouraged by the apparent absence of BC Greens’ influence on BCNDP’s actions/policies in supporting the provincial minority government.  Where is Greens’ presence in Govt’s horrifying decisions to advance harmful LNG projects in BC?  Or affecting Site-C dam’s (/Peace River valley’s) fate??  How have BCGREENS made their mark on critical BC Forestry revisions/ holding NDP to their promises of creating SUSTAINABLE industries going forward & meeting GHG reduction targets??? Why have I not had Greens’ support for my constant efforts —alongside orgs like Ancient Forest Alliance & Wilderness Committee— to stop clearcut logging of BC’s ancient old-growth forests & ban raw-log exports?  Nothing’s more important now! (These key campaigns are very close to my heart)
 
Our fast-shrinking old-growth forests —BC’s best (/ONLY) efficient C02 sequesters/ intact wildlife habitats— URGENTLY need to be protected by a MORATORIUM placed on permits to CLEARCUT these last bastions of hope for effective C02 control!  The BC NDP’s flimsy measures RE. Climate change are woefully inadequate to enable Reconciliation (via U.N.D.R.I.P.) OR safeguard BC’s communities from predicted ecosystem imbalances.. We desperately NEED our Greens to step in & fulfill their official parliamentary duties —to table science-based solutions & REJECT extinction-drivers (eg. a WOLF CULL?)  Please don’t wait until it’s too late to have your rightful say in BC’s future!  (Can’t in-party re-org WAIT?)

If the BC NDP has been unlawfully blocking BCGreens’ rightful input in decisions/policies affecting our province —as many suspect— is it not your DUTY to publicly report such obstacles blocking due process, so we can properly respond & be included in the process, as well as show support for Greens’ inclusion in our future?  The time is NOW to apply Greens’ considerable ethics/ know-how/ resources/ values to our remade future, which will look much better with —& MUCH worse without— the priceless benefits of Greens’ involvement..

I can’t wait much longer to see more of those good public policies & collaboration across party lines mentioned in your email!

Sincerely,

SARAH (SAZ) CHESTERMAN

Dear PM Trudeau, Albertans & all TMX Pipeline supporters..

I just spent more energy & time responding to another Cdn. who scornfully insisTs Canada NEEDS the TMX Expansion that was approved last week by Justin Trudeau (our resident Tot-in-Chief) -- to which I had this to say:  From a free-thinking fellow Canadian..

[Person's name withheld] TROUBLE IS, yours is hardly a 'different perspective' but rather the typical Cdn norm furthered by Govts since first contact - & only 300 or so yrs later we're in a #ClimateEmergency, thanks mostly to our unsustainable reap-without-sowing natural resource 'mgmt.' practices still going strong (despite warnings from global Climate summits since 1992, where all participating nations agreed to slow their rising GHGs/pollution & protect old-growth forests ++)  Canada has talked good intentions while continuing to allow destructive logging/ mining/ waste-mgmt practices - eg. Cutting down our precious ancient forests (best carbon captors - til felling them emits massive amts of CO2), approving massive dams like Site C & & allowing mining exploration in sacred Tsilhqotin First Nation/ tourist ranch country like Taseko's diabolical (twice Feds-rejected) 'Prosperity' open-pit disaster.. SHAME on #BCNDP!

Look up Genus Capital (Vcr.) with their successful fossil-free funds & fact-filled literature on climate change:  a forward-thinking corp that divests fossil fuels while answering the uRgenT call for changes to our UNSUSTAINABLE STATUS QUO:  if a financial institution can do it, why can't we?

BECAUSE OUR 'DEMOCRATIC' GOVTS MAKE ALL DECISIONS, WITHOUT RESPECTING THEIR SWORN OATHS TO BE GUIDED BY THEIR CONSTITUENTS & PROTECT THEIR (our) BEST INTERESTS!?

Bottom line = we MUST rein in our GHG emissions & protect our dying biodiversity from extinction --ie. Paris Agreement goals-- & spending billion$ on building a new pipeline for expanding polluting tar sands & shipping all that dirty bitumen via BC to the most polluting country on Earth just DOESN'T DO IT!!

Sorry Albertans, but aren't your kids' futures worth more than that brand-new gas-guzzling truck you were counting on? Come ON! Upgrading doesn't NECESSARILY mean austerity/ powerlessness --think Geothermal energy & snap outa that poor-me pouting to join Canada in finding solutions that don't subsidize already-wealthy Oil&Gas co's that have HAD their heyday & turned N. Alberta into a fire-ravaged toxic wasteland in the process..

We need to be sustainable.. Quit deforestation & unnecessary pollution.. to be proper stewards of the abundant green world we (once) knew & loved.. to reconcile with our First Nations natives in the way that they wish:  acknowledge all the wrongs conmitted - & adopted - by our Govts since Confederation & give them back sovereignty over their unceded territories for them to manage (as they did, sustainably & keeping abundant growing populations of diverse wild species, for millenia..)  Then we ask them - nicely? - if they'll lead us to sustainability, THEIR WAY - as we should have from the start:  isn't THIS the way to carry out due Reconciliation with our First Nations?

Canada's Constitution has a prominent section outlining our responsibilities of conservation & stewardship of all our native fauna/flora -- with which Govts ought to be familiar, as reminders that humans are not the only animals sharing planet Earth:  ie. aLL living beings should be respected & allowed to roam freely in their natural habitat without human interference..

Remember that next time you consider approving another destructive, smelly, waste-heavy human industrial endeavor whose main purpose (besides gutting all the rich natural resources of an area without regard for existing ecosystems) is to enrich the personal accounts of its officials while paying barely-liveable wages to its workers:  hardly acceptable for a polluting project costing billions in a 'Climate Emergency'..?

& don't insult Cdns' intelligence by promising to use the profits therefrom (!!?!) to fund fresh new green initiatives:  we've heard your promises before, & we are noT convinced!  (At least I hope we are smarter than lemmings)

PS. #GoVegan - I did, & it's easy if you love animals as I do..

My letter of SUPPORT 4 the WET'SUWET'EN

(Govt recipients' emails listed @ bottom)

RE:  URGENT ACTION DEMANDED DUE TO UNLAWFUL VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS & TITLE OF THE WET'SUWET'EN

Dear Sir/Madam,

I & all BCers with whom I've discussed this appalling event diametrically oppose the forcible removal at gunpoint by 'fully-armed' RCMP of our Wet’suwet’en Nation’s people from their own territories, & we ask that you fulfill your responsibilities as public servants by ensuring the RCMP & Coastal GasLink respect the constitutionally-protected rights of the Wet’suwet’en people on their unceded territory.

WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF GOVERNMENT's INCESSANT & EMBARRASSING PANDERING TO POLLUTING INDUSTRIES THAT HAVE GOTTEN AWAY WITH MURDER FOR FAR TOO LONG, & HOLD US ALL BACK FROM THE CHANGES WE NEED TO MAKE TO MOVE FORWARD!

We the public need your cooperation/ legislation - ACTING not just talking on BCers' behalf - to clean up our ways & move into a thriving sustainable world with forests intact, GHGs down & oxygen levels UP.. for future generations, so we can live with ourselves & decisions made.

The decision to attack peaceful people defending their [our] land & trying mightily to help bring good results for BC's future, who've been attacked & vilified by our Govt. 'leaders' for too long, is a $$-based one that favours big-$$ polluting entities rather than the law-abiding citizens rightfully opposing these industries' continuing  [proven] destruction of the ecosystems whose health all life depends for survival.  This project puts environmental health - e.g. drinking water - at risk, & will release massive amounts of carbon pollution/GHGs into the atmosphere.

We NEED our Govts. & industries to do the right thing & start protecting OUR best interests, not those of polluting corporations putting our future, health & welfare - along with those of all living species - in jeopardy..

The principle of free, prior & informed consent requires our Courts and Governments to respect the jurisdiction of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary governance authorities, who have clearly stated that they will not allow Coastal GasLink to build a pipeline through their territory.  And as a BC citizen i agree.

Please respect the following, as per the laws to which you are bound to uphold in your position: 

1) The TransCanada Coastal GasLink pipeline does not have the collective free, prior, and informed consent of the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs. All the Wet'suwet'en Clans have rejected the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

2) The injunction and enforcement order ignores the jurisdiction and authority of Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs' system of governance, and criminalizes land defenders.

3) We demand that the provincial government, federal government, RCMP, and industry  commit to upholding the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Anuk Nu'at'en (Wet'suwet'en laws), and that NO RCMP enforcement against Unist'ot'en/Giltseyu-Dark House take place on their unceded lands. Reconciliation and respecting UNDRIP means that Unist'ot'en's rights must be honoured.

If you have any integrity as a so-called 'leader' you must know that the injunction issued by the BC Supreme Court favours the status-quo of polluting industry scientifically proven to wreak havoc on the climate/ environmental balance on which all life depends, while violating the basic rights of legit citizens defending their land for the future benefit of all BCers.  Therefore you have a duty to uphold the "rule of law" as you yourselves claim, by respecting these people's rights & ending this wrongful police occupation immediately. Anything else is unacceptable.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

SARAH CHESTERMAN

VANCOUVER, BC

This message sent to:

AGR.Minister@gov.bc.ca
AEST.Minister@gov.bc.ca
AG.Minister@gov.bc.ca
MCF.Minister@gov.bc.ca
CITZ.Minister@gov.bc.ca
educ.minister@gov.bc.ca
EMPR.Minister@gov.bc.ca
ENV.Minister@gov.bc.ca
FIN.Minister@gov.bc.ca
HLTH.Minister@gov.bc.ca

IRR.Minister@gov.bc.ca
JTT.Minister@gov.bc.ca
Minister.TRD@gov.bc.ca
LBR.Minister@gov.bc.ca
MH.Minister@gov.bc.ca
MAH.Minister@gov.bc.ca
PSSG.Minister@gov.bc.ca
SDPR.Minister@gov.bc.ca
TAC.Minister@gov.bc.ca

Minister.Transportation@gov.bc.ca
coastalgaslink@transcanada.com
bcrcmp@rcmp-grc.gc.ca

GRC@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca
ralph.goodale@parl.gc.ca
carolyn.bennett@parl.gc.ca
Jody.Wilson-Raybould@parl.gc.ca
Jane.Philpott@parl.gc.ca
Catherine.McKenna@parl.B.C..ca

THANK YOU ROBERT AGES FOR YOUR INFO & LISTS!  SOLIDARITY!!