Boomers and Protest Nanaimo and Colliery Dam

I was at a major birthday party for my young sister-in-law and I found myself listening to the conversation with interest while we were eating. It seems that the Nanaimo City Council has made a decision or is in the process of making a decision to rebuild two dams. The conversation around this topic was hot and heavy from a number of people all of them boomers.   The people in attendance were not radical, or extreme, in my mind, they were concerned about the process and the lack of transparency and they were prepared to take whatever action was necessary to get their views heard. Their views are listed below and their website is here:

1. We are committed to maintaining and enhancing the safety of our friends and neighbours, the residents who live downstream from the Colliery Dams.
    
2. We object to the undemocratic way that the City of Nanaimo has made a decision about the future of one of Nanaimo's most beautiful parks entirely without public input.
    
3. We are certain that there are options available that preserve two of the most beautiful lakes in the city, while keeping people downstream from the dams safe.
    
4. We will engage with the City of Nanaimo in a constructive, collaborative way to see that this decision overturned.
    
5. We are committed to improving Colliery Lake Dams Park now, and into the future, once the continued existence of the lakes and dams is secured.

The people at the party all seemed in agreement that the decision by the council was a bad one, and they had identified which counsellors would/should be defeated in the upcoming election because of their support of the closures.  The city is using "the rule of law" to prevent the right of the citizens to protest the closure by trying to get an injunction against any John or Jane doe who may protest: the dam closures;

Another group also filed an application for the hearing in an effort to protect citizens not associated with Cutts's group. Valentine Stafford, a member of the Colliery Dam Park Preservation Society, which has been working since October to protect the dams, filed an application to protect “Jane and John Does” from being affected by the injunction.

“The point of this application is, where no unidentified person has done anything wrong, it's not proper that there be a court order that names John and Jane Doe,” said Timothy Huntsman, Stafford's lawyer. “If there were unidentified persons engaged in unlawful activities then perhaps a John or Jane Doe order would be appropriate, but where there is nobody who is unidentified who has done anything, a John and Jane Doe, in my submission, is not appropriate.”

I was not aware of the situation, but I swam and spent many enjoyable hours when I was younger in this area of Nanaimo. I was impressed with the passion of the Boomers at the birthday party. The right to protest and to  provide civil disobedience is important to Canadian values. We need to continue to fight for those rights and to protect those who have a need to protest from unlawful actions by the government.  So if you are on Vancouver Island, take a look at the issues and take a side. We are in for a summer of discontent in BC and we need to fight for our right to protest as it may soon be taken away by our Federal government. Boomers need to reignite their passion for protest and we need to fight for what we believe is right, as the young boomer's who I listened to at the party were doing. I hope they get justice.