In a recent Prince George Citizen article, MP Dick Harris was quoted as saying that the people who support the Conservative government’s side on Bill C-38 were “busy working and earning a living and raising their families and trying to make their lives as good as they can."

In other words, they’ve been trying to build community.

However, Mr. Harris left out an important detail: people who have been rallying to raise awareness around the bill’s anti-democratic nature are also busy building community.

Speaking up and letting other people know about potential problems with proposed legislation is a part of community building that goes hand in hand with working, earning a living, and raising families. We need all of these actions to build a healthy, informed community that is protected from those who would exploit our resources, our people, and our environment for their economic benefit -- not ours.

We build community by being informed about issues that affect social, environmental, and economic health. We do it by speaking up when we see actions that could potentially affect our collective well-being. We do it by asking our elected officials to address forces that threaten our communities.

As concerned citizens of Prince George, we all have a common goal: to build our community and make it a healthy, sustainable, and economically viable place to live. Let’s rise above efforts to create false divisions between us.

Melinda Worfolk

Prince George