🚀 go-pugleaf

ggauvrea@unixg.ubc.ca (Gwethalyn Gauvreau) writes:

> AUGUST 20 1993 THE FRIENDS OF CLAYOQUOT SOUND
>
> CLAYOQUOT VALLEY THREATENED
>
> As the number of arrests on the Clayoquot blockade climbs towards 600, the
> NDP government has quietly promised to give MacMillan Bloedel permission
> to begin blasting a road into the Clayoquot Valley within a month.  A
> Forest Ministry memorandum states that the new forestry guidelines
> promised by the Harcourt regime in its unpopular decision will be waived
> for a period of 12 months in order to expediate loggin in one of the last
> untouched valleys in Clayoquot Sound. Despite post-election assurances of
> public participation, no public input will be allowed during the first
> year of clearcut logging in this vital valley.
>
> "After all the expensive PR from our corporate-led government, its
> logging-as-usual in Clayoquot Sound," an angry Friends of Clayoquot Sound
> director, Valerie Langer said today.  "MacBlo has flagged its road across
> 45 degree slopes along an important salmon spawning stream and we're
> supposed to trust a company with 25 convictions for damaging fisheries?"
>

Yet more disinformation from the eco-fascist fringe! Yes, the Clayoquot
compromise, itself the result of 3-4 years of public input, allows a road
to be built into the valley. According to today's Province newspaper, the
approval process for that road requires "exhaustive technical risk
assessment, and is subject to approval from three government ministries -
forestry, environment, and tourism - and the federal fisheries ministry."

> Nuu-chah-nulth nation chiefs and B.C.'s biggest environmental
> organizations have re-affirmed their pledge to keep the big multinational
> logging companies out of the pristine Clayoquot VAlley.  But the Forest
> Ministry has told MB to expect its road-building permit by Sept. 14, 1993.
>
The Clayoquot is hardly pristine, although parts of it may be. And
today's Province reports that the company's road plan won't even be
submitted to government until mid-September, never mind having three
government ministries AND the federal fisheries people approve it by
then.

> This morning saw 180 rainforest protectors blockading a fog-shrouded
> Kennedy Rver bridge.  Eighteen people - including a longshoreman and a
> disabled World War II vet - were arrested for refusing to allow Interfor
> and MacMillan Bloedel logging trucks to pass.  "This is where patriots
> belong," 73 year old Austin Delany stated before being taken into police
> custody.  "An I'm calling on patriots and veterans particularly in B.C. to
> come and stand on guard."
>
> In related developments, an application before B.C. Supreme Court to quash
> MacMillan Bloedel's anti-blockade injunction enters its second day of
> hearings.  Friends' lawyers hope to convice the judge that MacMillan
> Bloedel should not be allowed to use Crown,RCMP and court resources to
> enforce a private dispute.

It's NOT a private dispute. Macmillan Bloedel has participated, like many
others, in a long process to establish a responsible compromise in the
Clayoquot. The people of B.C., through their representatives in Victoria
have given them the go-ahead to log certain areas of the Clayoquot over
the next 100 years.

The organized and concerted attempt to prevent MB from carrying out legal
and lawful activities has rightly met with a court injunction enjoining
the protesters from blocking the road.  Once the injunction was granted,
it became the people of B.C. that the protesters were thumbing their
noses at, not MB. The protesters have decided by themselves that they're
not going to obey any law they don't agree with, by gum.

If you want to violate a court injunction, you're breaking the law. If
you break the law, you should be prepared to take the consequences
without whining.

I'd have absolutely no problem with the protesters demonstrating their
opposition to the decision. I do have a problem with people, misguided or
not, who have decided that they should engage in a concerted way to block
Mac-Blo from engaging in logging that follows the principles as set out
in the Clayoquot compromise by the people of B.C. through their
government. In fact, the orchestrated protest at Kennedy River, as
presently constituted, has all the earmarks of a criminal conspiracy to
violate the injunction.

> Though Clayoquot fallers are set to begin a two week holiday today,
> grapple-yarding, road building and other rainforest-unfriendly activities
> will continue at 20 locations throughout Clayoquot Sound.  "We will remain
> on the road until Harcourt reverses his unfortunate decision," Langer
> declared.
>

Personally, I hope Premier Harcourt doesn't cave in to these people, and
that he continues to support the responsible compromise reached.


emd@ham.almanac.bc.ca  (Robert Smits, Ladysmith B.C.)

Claiming that sex education leads to irresponsible sex is like
claiming that driver education leads to car accidents.  Laurie.Mann