Statement to Court on Sentencing July 24, 2019

RE : Statement presented to the Honourable Justice Kenneth Afflek regarding my arrest on April 12th, 2018 for the alleged breach of the Order of the Supreme Court of British Columbia made for Trans Mountain Pipeline ULC.Your Honour I would like to begin with respectfully acknowledging that we are on unceded Tsleil-Watuth, Squamish, Musqueam and Stolo territories.

 

I am truly grateful for the opportunity our Canadian Justice system provides for me and all Coast Protectors to tell our stories .

 

My name is Susan Marta Smyth - (better known as Marta) I am 71 years old, a native of Quebec, but living primarily in Vancouver since 1970. After moving to BC I was privileged to spent some idyllic times sailing the coast between Vancouver and Bella Bella in a home-built trimaran - eating from the sea and exploring the infinite variety of micro- climates and rhythms of coastal life. This experience made an indelible impression on my soul and eventually turned my interest to the subject of ocean conservation.

 

Since receiving a BFA degree in 1968 I have practiced continuously as an artist and educator, teaching both adults and children.

 

Twenty-five years ago I was invited to teach a “Save Our Planet” program for a Children’s Art Institute in Vancouver.

 

To this end I have been creating simple workshops for children from kindergarten to grade seven that involve printmaking, mask-making, painting/drawing and paper sculpture. Through hands-on projects we explored such things as symbiosis, pollinators, keystone species, urban wildlife, plastics in oceans, species at risk, adaptation, the secret life of trees, coral gardens, the intelligence of animals, and the effects of oil spills, among other things.

 

In the beginning stages I mostly pursued my research for this program through beautifully illustrated kid’s books, and, in order to capture the imaginations of my young audience, I shared with them stories and pictures that featured animals in their environments.

 

What better source of inspiration for this purpose than time-honoured myths and allegories from around the world, particularly those born out of the rich cultures of these coastal waters?

 

This led to a deep appreciation of West Coast Native stories and art in which the world is owned by by trees, bears, fish and orcas as well as human beings,and to my gradual recognition of a vastly different world view from the white European outlook with which I grew up.

 

To quote author Jerry Mander “ One simple way of expressing that difference is to contrast the assumption that nature is a resource to be exploited with the aboriginal understanding that nature is a living entity with which we are in relationship...

 

The notion that our technological civilization represents the ultimate expression of human evolution, its final flowering, has justified the bulldozing of nature and native societies with impunity - and now we begin to witness the terrible and possibly catastrophic impacts of this attitude.”

 

“In the Absence of the Sacred” 1991

 

Almost yesterday, in this place of incomparable beauty and diversity called the Salish Sea - a mother orca named Tahlequah carried her dead baby for 17 days in a protest meant for all the world to witness - an action that, if we have any real intelligence, compels us to consider the elemental relationships between people, animals, and the forces of nature.

 

And is testament to the fact that the myth-making energies of West Coast tradition are as real and powerful today as they ever were.

 

So, at this time when science and story converge, I’m here to lend my support to a First Nations culture and tradition that points the way to our last best chance for the survival of our beloved planet. And to recover a sense of the Sacred in our lives.

 

The action in which I participated on April 12th at the Kinder Morgan gate, a peaceful art performance titled “Who Will Speak For us”, was intended to create a voice for all the innocents of this world - creatures of land, sea and air and our own human grandchildren - a visual reminder meant to invite the public and the powers that be to reconsider the enormous risk that is being taken with our oceans and our communities in Canada.

 

Your Honour, you have stated that “ in this court, matters of indigenous rights and the environment are considered outside of fact and law,” but, regarding these issues in particular, precedent has demonstrated over and over again that the Justice Department is exactly where changes in favour of indigenous and environmental rights occur.

 

Where else to turn? What to do when our window of opportunity to mitigate the worst effects of climate change is so small?

 

There have been public hearings which I have attended, there have been petition campaigns, there have been protests, there have been many court cases ruling in favour of the environment and First Nations.

 

But we have been dealing with a government that has circumvented its own laws and suppressed information which is crucial to the health of its own citizens and detrimental to their future...

 

Where gas and oil are concerned nowhere has the gulf between public and private interests been more obvious. In Canada no public review, including that of the NEB, no government statement has ever answered the fundamental question: “What about Climate change? What about the grandchildren factor?

 

We are dealing with a bizzarre disavowal of honesty, transparency, good government and scientific truth.

 

Your Honour, contrary to the notion that by sitting at the gate we have acted in contempt of the law, I feel we have deliberately placed ourselves at the mercy of the law to ask for the protection of our rights and freedoms.

 

And this is the crux of the matter:

 

For the greater good we have gambled that the court will find that the duty to stand up for the protection of the environment and survival of future generations supercedes the right of a corporation to pursue its business through the illegitimate permission of the government of the day.

 

Within a power structure steered by corrupt politicians the creation of a fully participating local culture and the considered reflection of enlightened judges represent the best sanity and hope that we have.

 

As of yesterday 822 jurisdictions representing 136 million people have declared themselves in a Climate Emergency.

 

There are more than 1,000 climate related lawsuits around the world.

 

How is it possible that the term Climate Emergency carries no weight regarding the civil disobedience of us Coast Protectors?

 

In my testimony of November 3rd 2018, I referred to three elements weaving through my adult life that led me to Kinder Morgan’s main gate . These were:

 

1. My ongoing engagement with children as a teacher and mentor

2. my education regarding environmental concerns though the “Save Our Planet’ program I have been teaching

3. my direct experience of the beauty and diversity of our oceans through sailing for months at a time on the Northwest Coast and in the West Indies.

 

I would like to elaborate on the teaching and mentoring element:

 

I have spent over 25 years taking programs into inner city schools. I and my teaching assistant marveled at the expressions of amazement coming from teachers when First Nations students excelled in our workshops, producing vibrant and meaningful artwork.

 

Time and again we encountered an issue that we identified as “low expectations” regarding the abilities of these students. “Low expectations” suggests to me that these kids just don’t fit into the curriculum and aren’t worth the effort. And from there it is easy to sacrifice their well-being for the betterment of others..I believe that this attitude was often unconscious.

 

The same underlying attitude seems to be at work in government and industry when decisions are made to squander First Nations’ land and lives in favour of short- term profit.

 

There exists a terminology for these territories and communities - they are referred to as “sacrifice zones”.

 

A SACRIFICE ZONE or sacrifice area is a geographic area that has been permanently impaired by environmental damage or economic disinvestment.

 

These zones are most commonly found in low-income and minority communities.

 

My presence at the Kinder Morgan gates was an attempt to draw attention to a pressing need for immediate change. A change that must occur because the whole planet is becoming a sacrifice zone.

 

In closing I would like to quote the author David Mitchell from his book ”Cloud Atlas”

“..you and I, the moneyed, the privileged, the fortunate, shall not fare so badly in this world, provided our luck holds ...Why undermine the dominance of our race, our gunships, our heritage and our legacy..why fight the (present) order of things?

Why?.....because one fine day a purely predatory world shall consume itself..

Within an individual, selfishness uglifies the soul; for the human species selfishness is extinction....

If we believe that leaders must be just,

violence muzzled,

power accountable

and the riches of the the earth and its oceans shared equitably

such a world will come to pass.

I am not deceived. It is the hardest of worlds to make real....

but a life spent shaping a world I want my grandchildren to inherit, not one I fear my grandchildren will inherit, this strikes me as a life worth the living...

[Top photo: 'Who will speak for us?" https://www.nationalobserver.com/2018/04/12/news/three-arrested-protests-resume-burnaby-mountain]