The Province (Vancouver, B.C., Canada), March 19, 2007

VICTORIA TAKES SIDES AGAINST RESIDENTS IN POWER-LINE BATTLE

[Rachel's introduction: In Canada, indigenous people have gone to court to try to stop a high-voltage power line using precautionary arguments -- but they are being betrayed by the government of British Columbia.]

Tsawwassen residents opposed to plans to put high-voltage power lines through their neighbourhood can rightly complain that the provincial government is selling them out.

The residents hoped to overturn a B.C. Utilities Commission ruling that approved the controversial project.

Their appeal court date is just days away.

But now they have learned that the B.C. government intends to intervene on the side of the BC Transmission Corporation.

The Tsawwassen Residents Against Higher Voltage Overhead Lines (TRAHVOL) has already spent nearly $300,000 fighting this project.

It calls Victoria's last-minute intervention "unbelievable" -- and that is not far off the mark.

The residents' case was strengthened when the B.C. Court of Appeal granted them a second grounds for appeal.

This was based on the principle that where science cannot agree whether or not something may be harmful to health -- such as electromagnetic fields from high-voltage power lines -- a precautionary approach must be taken.

But the B.C. government doesn't think that the precautionary principle should be a question of law in decisions by the Utilities Commission.

In other words, the Campbell government gives power lines a higher priority than people's health.

Such an approach hardly fits with the government's earnest new commitment to preserving the environment.

Copyright The Vancouver Province 2007