Musings on the Ovate Path

When we started this New Year, no one really knew what this year had to offer. We heard via the news about the epidemic of this novel virus in China , and that they were making massive efforts to control the spread. They shut down a good chunk of the country. A few of us watched the Chinese people using fogging equipment to spray down the streets, thinking ...oh propaganda.  Until it spread past China despite the lockdown, they tried. People went around it. It spread to the Middle East, the US, Europe. We knew coping with winter in Canada, it was coming. When it came, back in the spring, I watched our government do a complete about-face in policy . They literally shut down the country. Ironically enough, earlier with the tensions between Indigenous peoples and land rights and the overreaching reaction of the RCMP in Northern BC, the people were in the streets. They stormed the BC Legislature in a show of force and protest . No more were the people going to tolerate the ...

I must admit this week the news and political discourse in Canada has been a fascinating view of the "war of words." Polarizing and divisive words can be seen as not productive, but one must still listen to get to reconciliation right. Whether it is at he personal or the larger levels, one must still listen. That requires that one respects enough to hear the words, hear the emotion, and consider the meaning. It means when the other is struggling, asking for and reflecting back what your understanding back to them. The question "help me understand" is then the most powerful acknowledgement that what was said has value and that you are listening and willing to listen more. This is the real "frontline" of healing and reconciliation.  Acknowledging that person or position or belief has some value, even if its ignorance, allows conversation to continue. Then we go from there.  Reconciliation is also a commitment to hang in and stay strong to the proce...

I have been following the recent events involving Canada, the Wet’suwet’en people, and the Coastal GasLink pipeline in British Columbia. The protests began with the raid on the camp after Coastal GasLink received confirmation of an interim injunction. That action sparked widespread political response—demonstrations and blockades across Canada and beyond. The impact of these blockades has been significant: disruption, heightened public attention, and substantial costs. The first issue concerns the Indigenous people along the pipeline route who have not consented. Their sovereignty and title were not respected. The claims appear highly damaging. There was no archaeological assessment of the route and no willingness to reroute through that territory to protect what the people value. The RCMP was deployed as a tactical force against the title rights the people asserted through occupation after governments had already backed the project in principle. The court included enforcement clauses...