Premier Scott Moe’s throne speech promises “The Protection of Economic Infrastructure Act,” a law “to ensure critical infrastructure and transport routes cannot be disrupted by occupations or other illegal activities.”

Moe’s examples were close to home: “a northern road that was blocked, and not too long ago we saw a rail line that was attempted to be blocked” in Regina. “What we are doing is enhancing the current legislation that we have to be responsive,” he told reporters.

He picked a good week for it. One province over, the threats are already on the record.

B.C. Conservatives won the province promising to repeal DRIPA, B.C.’s law putting the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into provincial statute. Premier-designate Lorne Doerkson says repeal could come as soon as next spring.

On Monday, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs warned that B.C. could become a war zone if Doerkson follows through, and had a message for anyone thinking of investing in the province: “buyer beware.” The First Nations Leadership Council, which Phillip’s union belongs to, warned of a battleground.

Meanwhile, the Pacific Link pipeline from Alberta to the B.C. coast, named a project in the national interest by Mark Carney and Danielle Smith on Oct. 1, is scheduled to start construction next September.

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Nobody has blocked anything yet. Those are words. But Western Canada has seen where these words go.

In February 2020, Wet’suwet’en solidarity blockades shut down rail lines across the country, including a CN line at Acheson, just west of Edmonton. Jason Kenney’s answer was Bill 1, the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act, tabled Feb. 25, 2020. It covers rail lines, pipelines and highways, with fines up to $25,000 and up to six months in jail.

Then look at who Alberta charged under it.

Calgary pastor Artur Pawlowski, for a 20-minute speech to COVID protesters at the Smugglers Saloon in Coutts in February 2022. The judge convicted him of mischief but held off on the CIDA count because his lawyers challenged the act’s constitutionality. In May 2023 the Crown stayed that count rather than defend the law in court.

So a law written for pipeline blockaders was first aimed at a preacher, then dropped the moment a judge might have tested it.

That’s the lesson for Regina. A law on the books is worth exactly what police and prosecutors are willing to do with it.

Compare the other blockade. In February 2020, protesters sat on the CP line at Kahnawake, south of Montreal, for more than three weeks. CP got an injunction. The Mohawk Peacekeepers said they did not intend to enforce it.

CJME reports the bill won’t cover labour action, though that was the reporter’s summary rather than Moe’s words.

The real test of Saskatchewan’s law comes the first time someone sits on a rail line over a pipeline, and whether the province enforces it then, or saves it for the next convoy.