Editor, The Times:
Re: Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Peter Milobar’s comments on the rejection of Ajax, as quoted in Kamloops This Week:
“Yet you hear how many times how he [Environment Minister George Heyman] references SSN (Stk’emlupsemc te Secwepemc, which is composed of the Tk’emlups and Skeetchestn First Nations) and their opposition and it’s hard to see how that didn’t play a significant and final decision-making role in this.”
It is indeed hard to see how the effective and true representations by the SSN, made as part of the democratic process, didn’t play a significant role in the final decision-making on Ajax.
So what is Milobar’s problem with this?
Perhaps he could elaborate a bit more on his position.
His comments seem to us to carry enough of a whiff of “white privilege” to warrant a retraction, so it would be appreciated if he could correct us if we are misinterpreting his remarks.
If Milobar feels the need to mount a defence for Kamloops-area citizens regarding dangers in the antiquated processes overseeing natural-resource development, he should consider protecting us instead from the likes of Christy Clark and Bill Bennett and other such old-guard, money-grubbing, arbitrary, colonial-dinosaur B.C. Liberals who, thankfully, were not in power when the Ajax decision came down.
John McNamer
Susan Mann
Kamloops, B.C.