What was expressed, from the silent dignity of the hereditary Indigenous chiefs from up the coast who were present, to those of us with our banners and chants, to the folks that shouted at the prime minister until he had police drag them out, was the kind of fury and heartbreak that comes from being systematically ignored by those who are supposed to look out for you.

 

In response to the louder and more constant heckling, Trudeau genuinely got angry — at one point he really and truly lost his cool. He recovered quickly and dismissed the concerns, justifying his dismissal with a proclamation that those of us who disagreed with him “were not listening, not being respectful.”

 

The tragic irony here is staggering.

 

His government is forcing the Kinder Morgan pipeline through the territories of Indigenous Nations who don’t want it, going completely against what climate science is telling us we must do and threatening one the most incredible places on this planet.

 

His government is disregarding the concerns of many Indigenous nations about open-net fish farms in their water as trivial and ignoring the fact that reconciliation can’t happen if one party isn’t treated as equal.

 

These and other actions are the policy equivalent of shouting at us so that we can’t be heard, so that our voices are pushed aside and our power is taken away and all that we love is nationally categorized as expendable.

 

The difference is, no one comes to drag him out.

 

To me, the criticism of the tone of the protests misses this point. Is disrupting a public event with a world leader the most constructive way to contribute to meaningful dialogue? Probably not.

 

But when the prime minister feels the profits of some supersede the safety, the livelihoods or the inalienable Indigenous rights of others, there’s not much meaningful dialogue to be had.

 

The prime minister’s go-to line when addressing questions about Kinder Morgan is a great case study on this.

 

“Canadians know we don’t have to choose between growing the economy and protecting the environment,” Trudeau proclaims again and again.

It was clear that the Trudeau didn’t like having his preferred version of the conversation challenged, but this is the reality that so many — especially marginalized communities like Indigenous people and people of colour — live as a result of some of his policies.

 

People who feel frustrated that the protests shut down dialogue got a little taste of what it’s like for those of us who are fighting Kinder Morgan because it threatens everything we love.

 

I hope that everyone who feels cheated because something they were interested in got interrupted for a few minutes will try to imagine the agony of the Indigenous nations whose pleas for their right to say no to open-net fish farms have been ignored for decades.

 

The process that prioritizes some people and regions over others isn’t polite or respectful and it’s unfair to expect that activism against it always should be.

 

So while “rowdy and tense town hall” makes a great headline, what really happened last week was a raw example of the friction and discomfort born from a system that concentrates power with the few and silences the many.

 

Let’s fight through this unfair system and build a better world instead.

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