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The ABCs of blockading a road

When ordinary citizens decide enough is enough

A is for getting Angry

"I will put my butt on any road up there with a sign to stop the logging and I am pretty sure the community will be right behind me."

Pemberton Councillor Mark Blundell is not your stereotypical environmental activist. Chair of the Pemberton Chamber of Commerce, proprietor of the local grocery store, Director of the Legion – he hardly cuts the figure of a blockading eco-warrior. In fact, he’s never engaged in any civil disobedience before. Did he really say that?

"Yes, I did. And I am not a law-breaking citizen. I am not an environmentalist, per se. I’m not against logging. My family are resource industry people. But I did make that comment, because I thought it was important that the community be aware of how serious this could be, to the visual impact of Pemberton, the environment and the general public."

Blundell feels strongly enough about the proposed logging of Signal Hill that he’s willing to blockade the road, and people are galvanizing around him. Unlikely people. Like Mayor Elinor Warner. SLRD representative Susie Gimse. Rosalin Sam of the Lil’wat Nation.

Purely for its improbability, the image of the community’s leaders standing, arms-linked with Pemberton’s residents, loggers and non-loggers alike, chanting "we shall not be moved" is a beautiful sight. Though not to Weyerhaeuser.

Weyerhaeuser and their licensee, CRB Logging, hold the timber licence to log the hillside that provides the backdrop to Pemberton’s main drag and namesake to the Signal Hill Elementary School. The company has advertised an amendment to its Forest Development Plan, announcing its decision to exercise that licence. "That licence was given in 1902," says Councillor Blundell, "and a lot has changed in Pemberton since then."

A lot has changed in the wider economy, too, like the stumpage rate per cubic metre, which costs logging companies on average 240 times more than a century ago.

"I don’t see any economic benefit to the people of Pemberton," says Blundell.

Weyerhaeuser, on the other hand, obviously see some for themselves.

Elizabeth May is the Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada and recently authored a book, How to Be an Activist. She explains that Blundell is not as unlikely an activist as he might, at first instance, seem.

"Environmental activists, like many other practitioners of social change, come in all shapes and sizes, from all walks of life, and even from all political parties. More often or not, people suddenly find themselves in a situation that requires a certain moral heroism. They had not planned to become activists. The reality of activism, for the environment or any other cause, is that it is democracy at work."

"One person can’t stop this alone," says Blundell. "And one council can’t do this alone. But the population of Pemberton is 1,800 people, and the council is unanimous on their stance against this. It’s very important that people write letters, voice their opinions, express their concerns on this issue. If they don’t, the government agencies won’t get the message. It’s not just up to the elected officials like myself."

All activists can trace their politicization to some point, to some instant when the issue suddenly became personal to them. When they realized that protesting and writing letters and rabble-rousing is not other people’s work – it’s about engaging in their own immediate world, participating in democracy. As the saying goes, the world is changed by the people who show up.

For Blundell, the passion came when he walked through the trails of Signal Hill with a reporter. "I wasn’t particularly passionate about it until then. I didn’t realize just what effect it would have. There’s animal life up there. There’s nice paths that people can enjoy. Logging it will create erosion issues. There have been slides recorded up there. Streams run through there in the spring. People pick mushrooms up there, go hiking. It’s right in our back yard. It’s too close to home.

"I don’t want to resort to roadblocks. But it’s so nice to be able to walk out your house and into a forest. People move to Pemberton for the quality of life, and that will be affected. Our quality of life will be disrupted."

B is for Bombarding your opposition with letters

"The logging company has said that they really don’t care about the community. And I have a problem with that." Blundell is concerned with the frank statements that have been made by the logging company and its contractors’ representatives.

Diane Reed, Acting Manager of the Ministry of Forests, Squamish Office, explains, "The licensee here has a tenure. They have the right to exercise that tenure, as long as they meet all the requirements of the Forest Practices Code."

Letters, which are invited during a 60 day period for public comment, are being written. Andre Germain at the District Office noted eight had been received as of last Wednesday, July 28. The Village of Pemberton has been copied with several letters.

Reed explains the process: "All the letters on the Forest Development Plan go to the contractor who is doing the work for Weyerhaeuser. They are required to include all public comments and submit how they’ve dealt with those comments to the District Manager to review."

The District Manager makes a decision on the Forest Development Plan based on whether they’re satisfied the plan "will adequately manage and conserve the forestry resources in the area."

The only way for the community opposition to impact the decision, according to Reed, is "if the community sentiment is based on specific issues. The public input needs to put specific concerns to the licencee, and the licencee then has to address those in their plan."

Weyerhaeuser knows there is money to be made here, and they know the law is on their side.

Mayor Elinor Warner says, "We’ve had absolutely no response to our letter from Weyerhaeuser. We’re getting response from right across the province, from the Rainforest Alliance, the TapWater Alliance, all kinds of watershed people. But, nothing from Weyerhaeuser. Weyerhaeuser is a big American company. We asked them to come before council – and they sent their local contractor. We sent them a letter with a detailed list of things we’d like addressed, and they haven’t responded."

Councillor Blundell admits that the total lack of engagement on the part of Weyerhaeuser is discouraging.

"I don’t want to go up there and tie myself to a tree. I’m a law-abiding citizen."

But it just might come to that.

Ken Wu, of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee’s Victoria chapter, has some experience with civil disobedience, and some insight into just who Pemberton is up against. Currently, the WCWC is working on campaigns against Weyerhaeuser in the Walbran, alongside the West Coast Trail, and East Creek on Vancouver Island.

Wu explains that civil disobedience occurs when people become frustrated that the normal channels of citizenship and protest aren’t working. "People go through a step-by-step process. They start off generally using more moderate tactics, and as time goes on, the movement has to progress. The government doesn’t respond to the letters and the rallies. People get frustrated, and some will then step it up.

"The ones who are most involved, usually, become the most frustrated at not seeing success from their previous tactics, so they tend to step up to civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is not a substitute for the rest of the movement, but it is an important catalyst. It strengthens the campaign."

It’s starting to look like Pemberton’s campaign against this particular opponent is going to have to be a strong one. Last week, Weyerhaeuser announced a 3 per cent rise in its share value, profits having more than doubled in the second quarter of 2004. For the six months ended June 27, Weyerhaeuser had profits of $490 million, compared with $103 million from the same period last year. "Our record quarterly earnings reflect favourable market conditions for wood products and timberlands, combined with hard work by our employees to improve efficiency and streamline operations," said Steven Rogel, chairman, president and chief executive.

Can a village in the mountains stop a multi-national juggernaut like that?

"At the end of the day, (the Village of Pemberton) won’t really have much power. We can express our concerns, we can put forward a lot of information, comments, and express our disapproval, but at the end of the day, we won’t have any say. That’s just the way it is," admits Blundell.

"People really have got to write to Weyerhaeuser and the District Manager," says Mayor Warner. "I don’t know if it will make any difference. We’re going to find out within the next few weeks. Then we’ll have to decide what our course of action will be."

C is for Civil Disobedience

Rosalin Sam of the Lil’wat Nation knows something of the next step. In May 2000, when the provincial government appeared ready to approve an environmental certificate for Nancy Greene Raine and Al Raine’s proposed Cayoosh Ski Resort, Sam moved into action.

"The women decided there is not going to be a ski resort within our territory. So we decided to send the guys up there, to look for a place to set up a peace camp."

The camp, Sutikalh, was situated on the Duffey Lake Road, equidistant between Mount Currie and Lillooet, where it remains.

Nine of the 11 chiefs of the bands that make up the St’at’imc Nation answered an invitation to visit the camp. "We had a meeting with them that lasted almost all day. We drummed. We sang. We talked, and we came to the conclusion – the women had sent the men up there, so the women would lead us. The women said, ‘We’ve had enough destruction. Our lands are shrinking. The places we go to search for berries, teas and medicines (are being developed). The animals are in distress.’ And the Chiefs said, ‘Okay. We’re in full support.’ So we sent word to the premier and said there should be no way they should allow the environmental assessment to go through to build the ski resort."

In August of 2000, after a decade of environmental studies, the provincial government approved an environmental certificate for the project. The peace camp was at a crossroads, and they decided to act. "We blockaded the road," says Sam. The Duffey was blocked for 17 hours.

"People were angry," recalls Sam, who went from the road block directly to the Vancouver Stock Exchange to protest the government’s decision and make a statement.

The protesters later found out that the RCMP and the tribal police had acted quickly to prevent any First Nations people making it through to join the blockade. Nevertheless, the blockade helped put the St’at’imc Nation’s opposition to the Cayoosh Ski Resort on the radar, and ended peacefully after 17 hours.

The Raines have since stepped back from the development, saying, "the Indian problem is now in the hands of the government."

Sam explains the components of a successful action. "You have to set an agenda and stick to it. You can’t stray away from your message. You have to have strong leadership. You have to be clear on the issue. Say, ‘We want to prevent logging Signal Hill.’ If that’s what they want to do, then they should just get up there and stop it."

Betty Krawcyzk is another B.C. resident who has been on the frontlines when protests have ratcheted up to the next level.

Civil disobedience may be the only tool left to people who have found no other legal or administrative avenue to access government decision-makers. It is often done in the name of a higher extra-legal principle.

Krawcyzk, at her sentencing in Vancouver last October, stated her extra-legal case to the court:

"I refuse the charge and conviction of criminal contempt of court. I believe it to be a political charge and not a true one. If a private person acted in the way Weyerhaeuser does, with no concern for the property of others, if a private person took the most valuable items out of a public holding, then trashed what was left behind, they would be thrown in jail almost as fast as I usually am. And yet, Weyerhaeuser, who is a corporation, is afforded all of the rights and privileges of a private person but with none of the responsibilities of a private person – while I, who actually am a private person and citizen, am judged to have no standing in the matter, that is, no right to try and prevent in a non-violent way, the destruction of my own property as a co-owner of the public forests of British Columbia."

Based on Vancouver Island, the 75-year-old great-grandmother has spent a total of 17 months in prison in her elder years. Consistently, she is charged with criminal contempt of court for breaching injunctions obtained by logging companies.

In a nutshell, she blocks roads. She won’t sign any documents promising to stay out of the forests. And she won’t shut up.

Most recently, she was imprisoned for protesting against Weyerhaeuser’s logging of the Walbran. Ten years earlier, in 1993, Krawcyzk was part of the largest mass arrest in Canadian history when 900 people, including religious clerics, artists and business people, were arrested at Clayoquot Sound. Undaunted by her four-month stint in prison, Krawcyzk later joined the blockade at the Elaho Valley.

Located just outside Squamish, the Elaho blockade was marked by several highly publicized incidents, including one confrontation that led to the hospitalization of a protester and the conviction of five forestry workers of criminal assault and property destruction.

"It’s interesting," says the Western Canada Wilderness Committee’s Wu of the Elaho incidents, "that the people convicted of violent criminal assault and property destruction were given suspended sentences and sent to anger management classes, while the environmental protesters were sent to jail."

Two, including Krawcyzk, were sentenced to one year imprisonment. Four other protesters received shorter jail terms of up to 56 days. Krawczyk served five months before she won her appeal.

Logging was halted in the Elaho when the Squamish Nation released its land use plan, calling for protection of the area as a Wild Spirit Place. "There’s been a relative truce there for three or four years," says Wu. "There’s been some recently renewed interest from International Forest Products to get back into the heart of the valley, but the Squamish have tied them up for now."

Campaigners tend to be reluctant to officially designate their efforts "victorious" – they know how tenuous things are.

Just as the community of Pemberton thought the logging of Signal Hill had been dealt with in 2000, citizens have to remain watchful for renewed interest, and re-activate when needed.

Deciding to put your butt on the road is not to be done lightly. Protesters who return to the scene after the logging company has won an injunction risk being charged with contempt of court. Road blockaders can be charged under the Criminal Code, for offences such as blocking a highway, or obstructing a police officer, both of which carry sentences of prison time and fines.

Experienced blockaders from our own backyard tell of the violence and abuse they experienced.

"Loggers, hikers, ATV’ers, skidoo’ers, cross-country skiers, developers. They were all opposed to the camp," Rosalin Sam says of the Sutikalh site. "We had trouble from them all. (Opponents) attacked us with guns, threatened us, they burned down our information booth. We were called red niggers, welfare bums, terrorists…"

One protester from the Elaho blockade recalled, "There’s definitely a lot of apprehension before (you set up the blockade). It happens early in the morning, when it’s still dark. And you can hear the trucks rumbling in the distance. We’d see the first headlights coming, then the next. And you’re just a handful of activists, outnumbered by the workers coming up. And they’re angry. Often they try and break your cameras. Actually, every time there was a blockade, (opponents) always smashed all our cameras."

Ken Wu explains the need for a protest to have wider support, to build consensus, to branch out into the community.

"Unless there’s a broader outreach, there’s often a social license to violent attacks on the protesters. Which is why blockades can never be in isolation from the broader movement. If you are, it will definitely be open season on protesters with no consequences on the assailants. And the government is basically complicit in the whole thing. With the Elaho blockade, Glen Clark, the then premier, called on ‘an army of workers’ to fight the environmentalists. That kind of inflammatory talk right from the top of the province means that workers feel legitimately entitled to be violent.

"It’s not the same conditions now. The Liberals, with their deregulation agenda, have somewhat unified the workers and the environmentalists. At one time, the workers would have had their fists in our faces, but now, there’s more of a consensus. That’s important because it prevents the corporations from getting a free ride. They use the workers to put a community face on the anti-environmental fight, instead of the corporate face, which is what it actually is."

Mark Blundell has heard from people right across the community that they will back him up if he chains himself to a tree on Signal Hill. The more people willing to take that stand, and the more diverse they are, the more likely the ripples from a blockade in the Village of Pemberton will turn into shock-waves, for the Ministry of Forests, for Weyerhaeuser, for the province.

Diane Reed explains that the Ministry of Forests has no role once the Forest Development Plan is approved. "If there’s civil disobedience after that (approval is given) on the licensee’s work site, the licensee is responsible for getting an injunction to stop that. We wouldn’t be involved in that."

Rosalin Sam, though, will be.

"I’ll be there with them, if they ask me. I’ll stop any kind of destruction in the St’at’imc territory."

"Pemberton is a great place to live," echoes Mark Blundell. "It’s got a great community feeling. The floods really opened my eyes about the community. And hopefully, the community will band together on this as well."

Just how far they’re willing to go to save Signal Hill remains to be seen.



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