Editor:
I wonder when boys in high places will ever accept that when a woman says “no” she means it.
Listening to MP Jody Wilson Raybould last week and reading the text, I was struck by the fact that the director of Public Prosecutions - Kathleen Roussel (a woman) on Sept. 4th, 2018, sent a memorandum to Wilson-Raybould stating the DPP was “of the view that an invitation to negotiate (a remediation agreement to SNC-Lavalin) will not be made.”
Wilson Raybould then did her due diligence as Attorney General of Canada. On Sept. 17, Wilson-Raybould explained to the prime minister, and the clerk of the Privy Council, the law and what the AG was allowed/not allowed to do under the director of Public Prosecutions Act.
She also announced that she “was not going to interfere with the decision of the DPP.” Isn’t that a solid no? And yet, for four months the PMO and others continually harassed her that “things have changed,” have a re-think, talk to the DPP.
There are two issues here: the non-acceptance by men in power to take “no” from women. And the rule of law that can be manipulated by men in power to favour corporations as opposed to the common citizen.
The first in any other scenario (sexual assault to name one) is not acceptable – finally.
The second has been playing out here in Burnaby the last year with the arrests of over 200 citizens regarding the Trans Mountain pipeline and the subsequent conviction of 190-plus because of the rule of law. No matter the defence arguments such as recognizing Indigenous rights, the urgency of climate change, or even self-defence (as was my case for which I spent eight days in jail), we had transgressed the rule of law by breaching an injunction from a company that came into it with its own transgressions.
I find it appalling that such things continue to happen and that the rule of law has become a catchphrase when it is convenient and disbanded when needed in favour of the powerful elite.
Elan Gibson, Burnaby
