Federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May stopped in the city for a few hours, taking a speeder to McLean Mill for a short tour of the facility and talking with those working on a salmon enhancement project at the hatchery there.
She took time out to speak with Ha-Shilth-Sa about some of the current frustrations Nuu-chah-nulth Nations have experienced in dealing with the current Conservative government. On murdered and missing aboriginal women, May said she was shocked with Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt’s recent comments, saying they were unhelpful.
Valcourt has been criticized roundly for hammering away on the ethnicity of perpetrators, saying 70 per cent of aboriginal women murdered are killed by aboriginal men. She said most violence against women of all racial backgrounds is perpetrated by intimate partners.
She reminded Ha-Shilth-Sa that as shocking as Valcourt’s comments are, they are scripted out of the Prime Minister’s Office.
She said violence against women—any group of women—is still a problem in Canada, but the rate of murdered and missing women far exceeds rates of other ethnicities and there is no answer to that. She said these crimes often are not properly investigated and there are systemic problems, including racism, that a national inquiry will help shed some light upon.
Regarding the lack of respect shown by government for Nuu-chah-nulth Nations’ fishing rights—frustrating their commercial rights to fish and sell fish from their territories, and ignoring their knowledge and experience on such matters as the herring spawn harvest—May said the courts have been very clear on Indigenous rights. She said the Tsilhqot’in decision is extremely important. She believes in working respectfully together with Indigenous people on a path of reconciliation.
May is extremely confident in the prospects of the Green Party on Vancouver Island. She hopes people can open their minds to the possibility of having a Green Party member representing them in Ottawa, because that’s what the party allows, representation, not a system where members are told what to say and how to vote, she said.
May said the party is committed to sustainable resource development and acknowledges that we need jobs. She said she thought McLean Mill would be a perfect setting to hold a rally to bring attention to the export of raw logs, which the party is against.
When she arrived at the hatchery, one of the workers there called out to her. “We need money!,” he said. “I know,” she called back. The man, introduced himself as Jake and explained that he had been working on salmon enhancement for more than 40 years, and when he started there was $20-plus million dollars in funding for the work, and today there is still $20-plus million, but now there is much more work to do.
May said government was out of touch with the reality of the situation. She gave her card to Jake to get in touch saying she’s had some success in getting resources to those who need it.
Jake said the work they were completing at the hatchery was to bypass the mill pond. The pond water used to vary by only about two inches up or down throughout the summer, but since logging on the Beaufort Range it is now varying by six or eight inches.
“Thank you for doing what you are doing,” May said as she bid the workers goodbye.
With May on her tour was local Green Party candidate Glenn Sollitt who stayed behind with Jake to speak to him more.
