PM Addresses Blockades Over Pipeline Project

Canada’s prime minister says finding a solution to ongoing blockades over a British Columbia pipeline project will take time.

Justin Trudeau addressed the anti-pipeline protests Tuesday during a speech in the House of Commons.

Trudeau offered to meet with Wet’suwet’en Nation hereditary chiefs to discuss the ongoing dispute.

“Do we want to become a country of irreconcilable difference where people talk but refuse to listen? Where politicians are ordering police to arrest people?” said Trudeau.

“There are those who would want us to act in haste, who want us to boil this down to slogans and ignore the complexities, who think that using force is helpful. It is not.”

Trudeau said his government’s priority is to resolve the situation peacefully while protecting Canada’s rule of law.

Meanwhile, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer described Trudeau’s remarks as a “word salad.”

“That was the weakest response to a national crisis in Canadian history,” said Scheer.

Scheer said there were two key things missing from Trudeau’s remarks: a clear denunciation that the actions of the “radical activists” are illegal, and an action plan to end the “illegal blockades”.

“Will our country be one of the rule of law or will our country be one of the rule of the mob?” asked Scheer, who called for the government to step in and end the blockades.

“Nobody, and I mean nobody, has the right to hold our economy hostage.”

Blockades have forced CN Rail to stop all of its trans-continental trains in Eastern Canada, while Via Rail has shut down its passenger service across most of the country.