British Columbia

If, as the maxim goes, “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” we ought to ask just why it is that good people so often do nothing.

September 4th 2019

Chief Lee Spahan from Coldwater Indian Band was happy to hear the news: the Federal Court of Appeal will hear his nation’s legal challenge against the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

But he said there is still “a long road ahead.”

In a six-month trial, the provincial NDP government will have to fight against the treaty rights of Indigenous peoples whose traditional territory and burial grounds will be destroyed by a hydro project — one that now could be cancelled at the eleventh hour

Thank you for this opportunity to speak.

Before my arrest and throughout more than half a century of volunteer community contributions, I’d always worked within the bounds of law.

I took the longer, legal route to reverse government policies because it was viable to take those routes.

But there are things we know, without a doubt, about climate change that made my response to it on Burnaby Mountain fundamentally different.

As a Minister of the Christian faith, with the United Church of Canada, I’m mindful of the duty to protest, if not resist, if and when civil authorities fail to provide due process and fair outcomes to grieving peoples.

I do not take this to mean that I have the right to disobey court orders anytime I might disagree with them.

I understand and appreciate the importance of our justice system – especially its checks and balances.

Aug 27, 2019

Dry summer conditions, low snowpack have put town's prime water source at risk

The town of Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island will start using pumps to keep the local river flowing, due to one of the most severe droughts its watershed has experienced.

Water from Cowichan Lake will start being pumped into the Cowichan River on Thursday.

Catalyst Crofton, the company that will manage the process, says 11 droughts have plagued the Cowichan basin since 1998.

[Rita Wong was sentenced to 28 days in prison.]

I’m grateful to be here alive today with all of you on sacred, unceded Coast Salish territories, the homelands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil Waututh peoples.

[Will Offley was sentenced to 14 days in prison]

In the last year the Court has seen people from all walks of life, class backgrounds, nationalities and political persuasions appear, charged with the same allegation, criminal contempt of court, for blocking Trans Mountain’s operations. 

What unifies us all is the shared understanding that humanity is teetering on a precipice, and only decisive action to reverse climate change can prevent an unprecedented catastrophe.

August 20, 2019

On August 16, climate activists Rita Wong and Will Offley were sentenced to jail for blocking the TransMountain site on Burnaby Mountain. Will was sentenced to 14 days in prison, and Rita to a shocking 28 days, the longest sentence yet in the more than 220 arrests of water and land protectors.