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Summer of Solidarity |
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Welcome:
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*Photos* | EACT door-to-door Survey | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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News Releases Year 2001
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Elliott Anderson Christian Trozzo Water Users Committee |
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Summer of Solidarity |
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Welcome:
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*Photos* | EACT door-to-door Survey | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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News Releases Year 2001
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Elliott Anderson Christian Trozzo Water Users Committee |
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Legal representative Kevin Murray confirmed that the Workers Compensation Board is not responsible for public safety, but only for the safety of workers. Following complaints that workers were endangering protesters in the Elliot-Anderson-Christian-Trozzo (EACT) watershed, W.C.B. spokesman John Spence carefully reviewed the Act.
He reiterated the board's position that logging firms are not required to apply safety regulations where the public is concerned.
Local residents have been protesting Slocan Forest Products' road building into the north end of the fragile EACT watershed, for over a month.
Two people have been struck by debris when fallers ignored their presence in the "no fall" zone (the area up to two tree lengths from the faller where the danger of personal injury is greatest).
"Peaceful protest is every Canadian's right, and protecting public land and clean water is every Canadian's responsibility," says Gerard Rodden "Logging companies shouldn't fall trees when doing so could put human life in peril." Continued Rodden .
Nelson - Monday June 11, Slocan Valley resident Ed Heide was sentenced to 28 days in prison, plus two years probation by Supreme Court Justice Marc McEwan, after being found guilty of Criminal Contempt of Court for defying a court order.
"I don't want you to incarcerate me," Mr. Heide told the judge before sentencing, "instead I want you to give me the death sentence, because that is what is happening in the long run." --Edwardo Heide to Supreme Court Justice Marc McEwan.
Mr. Heide was arrested on September 21, 2000 after he locked himself onto an excavator that Slocan Forest Products (SFP) was using to build a logging road into the Trozzo Creek domestic watershed and wildlife corridor.
Penalties for contempt of court, especially for environmentalists, have increased in recent years with a move from community service to extended periods of time in jail, including sentences of up to one year.
"Clearly the courts are not impartial. Just weeks ago seven BC mill workers received no jail time for defying a court order when they blockaded the dismantling of a West Fraser mill in Youbou, while environmentalists aren't even allowed early release, something that is available to murders and rapists," said James Jamieson, a local water user.
A recent policy decision by the Attorney General's office now requires that those found guilty of Contempt of Court serve their entire sentences, unlike prisoners convicted of violent crimes such as assault and murder who are allowed reduced sentences for good behaviour.
These extreme sentences and harsh decisions by the Attorney Generals office do not seem to be having the desired effect of deterring further protests.
Already there is another protest underway in the north end of the Elliot-Anderson-Christian-Trozzo (EACT) watershed. For the past five weeks residents have been blocking Slocan Forest Products as the company tries to bulldoze yet another road into the watershed. SFP could be applying for a court injunction any day.
Local Watershed defenders have been threatened by Slocan Forest Products with civil Lawsuits.
People have occupied crown land for four weeks protesting road building and industrial logging in their drinking water supply area, in the Slocan Valley, near Nelson BC.
"This abuse of the courts must stop. SFP is provoking residents into actions that will result in bogus lawsuits being launched and then plead with the court for an injunction, ordering the police to arrest residents who are merely seeking proper judicial review accorded all people criminally charged," says James Jamieson a local water user.
Residents began blocking road building into their watershed when all other means had failed to convince Slocan Forest Products that logging in a domestic watershed is reckless and a total disregard for public health and safety.
On May 28th, 2001 SFP employees converged on the protest camp set up by residents and used a full-sized excavator to tear into the ground, rip out trees, and cut logs within 10 feet of the camp under the pretext of building a road.
Tensions were high as branches hit tents, one of the residents jumped in front of the machine, bringing it to a halt.
SFP has informed residents that it will be using this dangerous and threatening behaviour as part of its argument in order to gain a court injunction. This will force the police to arrest residents who are involved in a civil dispute with the company.
"If residents are breaking the law by stopping the logging of their own water supply then the police should arrest them under the criminal code and allow the courts to remain impartial," says James Jamieson
Slocan Forest Products has used these frivolous and nuisance lawsuits to silence public protest for decades.
To date, SFP has not carried through with any of its lawsuits. Injunctions are only legally issued as a means of preventing injury during the waiting period till the court can hear a bona fide lawsuit. By dropping the law suits after residents are arrested, convicted and serve jail terms, SFP avoids any burden of proof and residents go to jail for violating a court injunction that should not have been issued in the first place.
There is no sure way for people to even know what penalties they face when the charges are contempt of court as evidenced recently when seven Youbou mill protesters were charged with contempt of court. The seven were charged after a blockade aimed at stopping the dismantling of the Youbou mill.
All entered guilty pleas and were granted absolute discharges if they abide by certain conditions.
This compared to Chloe Sage and Scott McIntosh who are currently serving 28 days in jail for contempt of court for blockading the destruction of their drinking water supply. The prison system has declared that these peaceful protesters are not to be eligible for early release since they were charged with contempt of court. Early Release is available to all other prisoners including murderers and rapists. Chloe Sage and Scott McIntosh will be appealing this decision, but it will not be heard until after they have served their entire terms.
Video is available of SFP's reckless actions on May 28th 2001
Today in the Nelson Court Chloe Sage and Scott McIntosh were found guilty of criminal comtempt of court and sencenced to 28 days and 2 years probabation. The decision and sentencing in Ed Heidi's case is being held over until June 11. Chloe gave a strong thoughtful statement which Judge McEwan interrupted towards the ends, to give a lecture on how displeased he was with what she was saying. Scott was only able to give a small portion of his statement before McEwan, again interrupted stating that Scott was not allowed to talk about entities that were not present (could have been the phase "corporate cesspool" that did it) and discredited the rest of his statement. Scott and Chloe's strength and unmoveable stance was dignified and genuine and left the court proceedings looking distinctly sleazy by comparison. At the moment both Chloe and Scott are being held at the Nelson Police Station. It is possible to visit them but the police only allowed a couple of pople in to see them. They will be moved on Tuesday to Kamloope (Scott) and Burnaby (Chloe) for the duration of their sentences. As soon as I have contact info, prisoner #'s etc I will sent it out. At the moment I am gathering letters for them to take into Nelson this weekend, so if you would like to send a message please e-mail it to me at kayu@netidea.com and I'll forward it to them. With good behaviour they sould be out by June 8 or 9th. More to follow, Tanya
We stand on unceded Native land uninvited, as visitors. Trozzo Creek lies within the traditional territory of the Sinixt people. They have never given permission to Slocan Forest Products to build or blast or log in that watershed. My actions on Trozzo Creek are for the return to the Lakes Peoples way, the Sinyxt. A return to a time when all beings are considered a part of a whole system integrated and interdependent. I acknowledge this courthouse as standing on land of a people who are, in Marilyn James words, as spokesperson for the Sinixt, moving through extinction. I see the forest practices of British Columbia enforcing a culture of destruction, waste and shortsightedness, that can only take us into extinction.
Judge Mckewan this is not the first time you have seen a case of this nature, and will not be the last. for the last twenty years residents of the West Kootenays have tried through routes of legal court process to be heard and have each time been turned away to their despair. Each time watched forestry corporations win over community interests. I know you have seen these reasonable attempts and presided over many of them. When we have seen, again and again, our efforts to introduce solutions for the Slocan Valley squashed such as the Silva Forest Foundations Ecosystem Based Plan and the the many studies done on economic alternatives to logging in precious watersheds.
We are told that a Forest Practices Code is enough protection for our forest ecosystems. We see first hand the devastating effects that Forest Code logging leaves behind. We have seen this at Bonanza Creek and Airy Creek just as two of many examples we would gladly take you on a tour of. Herb Hammond RPF states many reasons in his report Does The Forest Practices Code Protect Water . The two main points being that high snow packs and rapid snow melt in clearcuts and in young forests that follow clearcutting often result in floods, landslides, and destabilized creek channels. The code permits clearcutting in domestic use watersheds.
The second important point in Hammond's report is that the code has little or no protection for small streams. I live under one of those small streams as does most of the population of the Slocan valley, human and otherwise.
Knowing that the provincial law gives corporations the right to completely destroy my water supply and the ecosystem surrounding it eliminating habitat for endangered species like the grizzly and the wolverine, I ,after knowing all legal avenues had been exhausted, chose to use civil disobedience as my form of protest that was neither frivolous, flagrant. It is difficult, no impossible, for me, someone who believes in justice, to accept that a court can decide that I have no human right to clean water and a logging company has every right to destroy water. What kind of world do we live in that makes these decisions in favor of corporations that pay 25 cents per cubic meter in stumpage fees on crown land, that as citizens of Canada, we supposedly all have part ownership of. Our government is accepting $10.00 a truckload for wood that does not belong to them. They could at least give the $10.00 to the rightful owners of this land, the Sinyxt people.
A law unjust is a law meant to be broken. If it is deemed unlawful for our communities to stand peacefully to protect the water that keeps our families from going thirsty then I must break it. If we will not protect the earth we depend on for survival then who will. You are asking us to stand aside and watch our very life lines, our water, be cut off. This I for one could not do.
In the last trial you heard dealing with the the men who were arrested last summer you stated that there needed to be a deterrent against future protests that break the law. I will argue that giving jail time is not a deterrent. People who act out of self defense and who act from their heart will not stop following their hearts if some one else is given jail time. I will say that by handing down sentences to people who are participating in a long and noble tradition of civil disobedience you are not deterring others from acting out, but escalating the conflict.
Judge Mckewan, I have heard many times in this case references to past precedent setting cases. Cases where Judges have made judgments outside of the normal rulings and have opened up future cases for change. I then heard you say many times that this is the way it is done and the law is the law. I understand that the law is the law, but I also understand that there is much ambiguity in the law. In the case of contempt of court , it seems to me to be open to much interpretation. That means each judge has an opportunity to change the way judgments are made in court rooms by being that precedent setter.
I ask you to take contempt of court out of commission and search for other ways to deal with people who are standing up for what they believe in. This charge, reserved for people who practice civil disobedience, eliminates our rights for a fair trial and takes away our freedom of speech because this charge is a gag order. murderers and rapists get to defend themselves more than we do. This in the end is what brings the courts in to disrepute. To give jail time to people who are not a danger to society and have not hurt anyone is far from justice.
I hope in the future the idea of justice is not only an idea that we can fantasize about ,but a reality we can live every day. Until communities have control over our own lives, until our own government stops legislating environmental destruction we will not see justice.
Chloe Sage. Nelson Court - Judge Mckewen presiding - May 18th, 2001
"The problems that we have cannot be solved at the level of thinking that created them." -Albert Einstein
We live in a staggeringly beautiful oasis of life, radically unique against the stark void of black space. We call her Earth. Not quite 30 years have passed since we took our first pictures of the Earth from space, seeing first hand the magnificent, opalescent sphere of deep blues, emerald greens and enchanted wisps of pure white that we call home. Since that time, we have come to appreciate our home as an unbelievably complex and unique being. As our understanding of the Earth has become more sophisticated, we have quickly learned just how much humans have changed and continue to change her.
Our beliefs, attitudes and values are also changing. Some of us have come to realize that the Earth is not an elaborate, mechanical "spaceship" and that we are not the drivers of this craft. Some of us have also learned to respect that we do not sustain the Earth: that she, in fact, sustains us. Unfortunately, many of us do not understand nor respect these truths, and continue to act in ways that create Great Suffering for all beings, all our brothers and sisters.
Sadly, there seems little room in today's corporate world for compassion, care, loving kindness, and equanimity. As a result, we are witnessing and facilitating the destruction of all life-support systems on our planet. This is ecocide.Why is this happening? Because we allow it to happen. Why do we allow it to happen? Because we no longer we see the bars on our cage.
Quite simply, Big Business is killing the planet. Today in the Slocan Valley, timber corporations have more rights to make profit than our come-unity does to a healthy and productive life. Slocan Forest Products has more right to make a dirty buck than we do to clean water. This is wrong. Corporations are not people, are not citizens and must not be treated as such. We, the people of the Earth, citizens of Canada, residents of the Slocan Valley have basic human rights protected by law. I demand these rights be upheld, I demand justice.
At this time, the dawn of the 21st century, it is critical we grasp and understand the nature of institutionalized, corporate violence and how corporations manipulate our values and beliefs to maintain the power of the few. Presently, 447 people have a combined wealth greater than the income of half of humanity. If we deny this, we will be forever imprisoned in the caves of ignorance, mindlessly consuming ourselves into extinction. We have a planet home of beauty, diversity and mystery and this home is in critical need of care. It is time to take the shared commons back.
As citizens of Canada, we have every right to be distressed that our government no longer speaks for the people or the forests. When it comes to respecting and representing the full spectrum of forest values, government action has failed us. This is the politics of ecocide, where governments cling to dying paradigms, continuing to do things as they've done in the past, submitting to the largest special interest group: corporations.
Routinely ignoring ecologically progressive and economically viable alternatives, the government continues to deny our fundamental rights to a "healthy, sustainable, productive life in harmony with nature", protected under the Earth Summit, United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 1992 and the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. By refusing to implement models of change, the government speaks neither for the people or the forests. I ask you, who do they speak for?
Corporations are cesspools of violence, filling minds with fear, turning one against the other. Commodifying our lives, the environment, food and water - all are up for grabs to the highest bidder in the open market. Right now 80 % of the world's ancient forests have already been destroyed. Of the one-fifth that's left, logging is the single biggest threat. An area the size of a soccer field is logged every two seconds. Conservatively estimated, 3 species go extinct every day, lost forever. In British Columbia, 800 species of plants and animals are threatened or endangered, of which only four are legally protected. This is a disgrace. And why? To make cheap toilet paper, disposable chopsticks and McCrap for your less-than-Happy meal. With the global corporate agenda, nothing is off-limits, nothing is sacred.
When corporations can operate anywhere they want, they comb the world for the place with the lowest environmental standards and weakest labor laws. Governments, in turn, compete against each other to entice investors with ever-weaker standards. In the quickening race to the bottom, workers' rights are trampled and nature violently destroyed. The recent FTAA Summit, negotiated in secret by sheltered elites, trade bureaucrats and corporate power brokers, is an attempt to create a seamless global economy with universal rules set by Big Business for its own advancement. Evading the scrutiny of the people it will affect by hiding more information than they disclosed, the Canadian government responded to legitimate concerns of civil society with violence and brutality, denying our fundamental, Charter rights to freedom of expression and freedom to peacefully assemble. This violent response lends no credibility to government assurances that labour, environmental and democracy concerns will be addressed. I've had it with my government's "blah blah blah."
Increasingly, unchecked corporate domination defines the world we live in. Of the largest 100 economies in the world, 52 are transnational corporations. Wal-Mart is bigger that 162 countries. Mitsubishi is larger that Indonesia. Ford is bigger than South Africa. Time Warner-America Online has a market value greater than the economy of Australia. The world's 200 richest people have doubled their wealth in the last 4 years while 200 million more people are living in absolute poverty this year, less than $1/day (1999 UN Human Development Index Annual Report). This morally reprehensible, and disgusting.
All things are interrelated and depend on each other. When we look at a biological come-unity, the interdependencies and relationships tell the story. All animals, including human beings, share some basic needs: food, water, shelter and space in their appropriate arrangement. These components comprise our habitat. If any of these elements are missing or significantly changed, there are serious impacts. For example, whenever an area of land is paved for a shopping centre, divided and excavated for new suburbs, or clearcut logged, small animals lose their homes and frequently, their sources of food and water. As these small animals disappear, so too do the larger animals that depended on them for food. This loss of biodiversity and loss of habitat weakens the system as a whole and can ultimately lead to extinction. Although extinction is a natural process, excessive and intensive human activities in the environment have caused a dramatic increase in its rate. Habitat loss and modification, over-exploitation, unregulated commercial harvest, disruption of migration routes and breeding behaviors, contamination by pollution, "pest" control, and competition or predation from introduced species are all major causes of species extermination. This must concern all of us.
By logging the watersheds of the Slocan Valley, including Trozzo, Elliot-Anderson, Christian, Bonanza, Hasty, Lemon, Springer, Goat Mountain, Perry Ridge, Airy, Cougar and Koch, we are significantly changing elements of our own habitat, our home, and jeopardizing our sources of water. Clearcutting, road construction and associated management practices damage water quality, water quantity and timing of flow.
With watershed logging, pollution is a major source of concern for people, as sedimentation and dis-ease causing wastes can introduce infectious organisms such as giardia and cryptosporidium into water supplies. Already in Canada, within the last 12 months, 10 people have died from polluted water supplies.I ask you, Honorable Judge McEwan, how many more have to die?
High peak flows, known as spring floods, are also a result of watershed logging. As the water is released all at once, foreign materials such as rocks, sticks and logs can be washed into watersystems, destabilizing slopes causing immediate or future landslides. Following spring floods, you can expect fall droughts as there is only so much water available in a system. It is finite and has limits.
The effects of watershed logging are long lasting, compound and cumulative as water connects all things in the forest, all things on Earth. Everything downstream from a plugged culvert or landslide is affected. The ripples from a flood extend throughout a watershed, throughout the come-unity.
What is called for is a meaningful evolution rather than a stagnant regression into greed, denial and violence. Evolution is concerned with how, during the long history of life on this planet, different animals and plants have become adapted to different conditions. As human beings, our capacity to store information and use it to ensure future actions are appropriate is of evolutionary importance, increasing our fitness, prosperity, and ultimately, our survival. In this sense, we are concerned more with evolution as a cultural process rather than a genetic one.
We must take back control and direct our own evolution. Creating real democracy instead of corporate democracy, choosing people before profit, consensus and co-creation rather than corruption and greed. Variation and diversity give us strength and resiliency. In today's world, there are no winners with my group against your group.
Today, humanity wins or loses together. We are global society. These are global forests. In the long run, humanity can survive without wood fiber; nothing survives without water. We are all empowered people free to make our own decisions. Valuing autonomy and freedom, co-ordination and consensus, let us celebrate life, diversity, creativity and connection. As Mahatma Gandhi once said "There is enough in this world for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed."
A new consciousness of responsibility for other human beings and the Earth is growing. In solidarity with the people of Bolivia, I reaffirm the principles of the Cochabamba Declaration. Water belongs to the Earth and all species: no one should be allowed privatize, commodify or degrade it for profit. As a member of the global come-unity, a Canadian citizen, and a seasonal resident of the Slocan Valley, I am compelled, with the utmost prudence, to ensure that this right is protected for the benefit of all living beings.
I demand an immediate abatement to all watershed logging and the destruction of our life-support systems. Let us together confront globalization, confront corporations and reclaim the Earth and democracy. When we understand and acknowledge what is at stake, the people will rise and resist.
This we know.
This we resolve:
-Declaration of Interdependence, David Suzuki Foundation
All-ways free, May the forest be with you,
Scott McIntosh. Nelson Court - Judge Mckewen presiding - May 18th, 2001
Today, as preparations for the funerals of people killed by a killer parasite in their water in North Battleford Saskatchewan take place, Slocan Forest Products starts more road building that threatens Slocan valley residents' drinking water.
Bob Jones, administrator of quality control for the Greater Vancouver Regional District, said yesterday that one of the keys to Greater Vancouver water supply being protected from cryptosporidium is that it is in a protected area.
We need to protect the drinking water areas of all British Columbians and not just the water of those who live in Vancouver.
Last summer 12 residents of the Slocan Valley were arrested for blocking Slocan Forest Products from building roads into their watersheds.
"The war in the woods may be over on the coast, but if government doesn't do something now to stop the destruction of people's watersheds, then there is bound to be more conflict as residents fight for their lives against intrusions into their domestic water supply areas that may very well kill them in the future." says James Jamieson a property owner and Slocan Valley water user.
Corky Evans of the NDP is fighting for his political survival in the West Kootenay riding of Nelson-Creston at the same time that people's water is being destroyed. The Greens are pushing a platform that would protect people's water and it may quickly rise to the forefront of the election on May 16th.
"We need a government in place that will care for the most precious resource we have in this province - pure clean drinking water", says Donyne O'Coffey, who faces imminent road building in the headwaters of the watershed she lives in, in the Slocan Valley.
The NDP says that they are protecting peoples water with their new water protection act, but clearly this act does nothing to stop the destruction of drinking water, or to ensure the health and safety, of British Columbians, but rather leaves water users exposed to potential killer parasites.
Copyright © 2000 Elliott
Anderson Christian Trozzo Watershed Alliance. All rights reserved. Web by
Kurt Heimbach.