The right to protest

Is there a place for acts of conscience in our society?

Protesters on Burnaby Mountain have proven they feel strongly enough about stopping a proposed Kinder Morgan oil pipeline that they are willing to be arrested.

No doubt there are many who will dismiss their protests as foolish and misguided. Others will not envy the hassles that inevitably attend being arrested and charged.

But there are those, too, who will view their actions as heroic and principled, and will privately wish that they had the courage to take a stand against something they feel, on a very deep and fundamental level, is wrong.

To those arrested, it is all the price of making a statement. It is not a price they wish to pay. It is one, they say, they feel compelled to endure.