If a ban on oil tankers off British Columbia’s North Coast is lifted, Arnie Nagy is ready to fight.
A member of the Haida Nation living in Prince Rupert, more than 700 kilometres up the coast from Vancouver, he spent his career working in fish canneries that once employed thousands, and still takes to the ocean for salmon.
He didn’t hesitate when asked what is at stake for him in the upcoming federal election.
“Our way of life,” he replied.
“My family’s way of life since time immemorial: The protection of the marine environment, the protection of our rights to go food fishing, the protection of the salmon resources and the marine resources that we used to build the economics in coastal communities.”
Nagy, now 61, said he’s been fighting proposals to put oil tankers in B.C.’s oceans since the 1970s. Today, the issue has been brought back to the agenda by the federal Conservatives, who …