New video - We went face to face with a Conservative Minister.
- Details
- Published on Sunday, 26 April 2015 15:00
- Written by editor
My name is Jesse Savath I’m a professional filmmaker and photographer living in Vancouver. A few days ago I joined several people in confronting the Conservative Minister of Industry over the pathetic response to the recent Vancouver oil spill. I’m writing today to share a video of this confrontation with you.
But first I’d like to tell you how I ended up in the middle of this action.
Six months ago I was standing in a forest with no distractions, no city sounds, no meaningless stresses. It was life at its rawest and it felt right. My final few minutes at the Unist'ot'en camp, a resistance community that protects sovereign Wet'suwet'en territory against pipelines, were very emotional.
The journey that led me to that camp started in
February 2014, when I decided to attend a direct action training in
Vancouver organized by ShitHarperDid. One of the trainers was of
Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en Origin and shared stories of
Indigenous resistance. Together with about 20 other participants I
spent the day learning about the history and practice of direct
action. For the first time in my life I could imagine
what it might feel like to fight a destructive system with my
body. It felt incredible and the inspiration was
lasting.
I started volunteering with the
Council Of Canadians with the intention of becoming more deeply
involved with environmental and social justice. Through those channels
I was introduced to the idea of attending the Unist’ot’en camp; at the
time I didn’t fully realize just how lucky I was for having the
opportunity. Driving for 16 hours through British Columbia’s vast and
ever-changing natural landscape to get to Unist’ot’en, I was
left with a lot of time to think about the camp's importance and how
it related to my day to day life.
Everyday the entire camp would meet to eat, we would say a special prayer to honor our food and talk about the day ahead or past. We ate off the land: salmon caught moments before in the river, moose, venison, vegetables from the garden. Everything was connected and this is what made the experience so special. Hearing the camp leaders Freda and Toghestiy share their infinite knowledge of struggle, the land, and solidarity made us all feel important and vital in the fight to protect our earth. The lessons from that experience will stick with me forever.
And so when it was over, I said my goodbyes to the
trees, the river, the air, and of course to the people I spent the
last five days with. It was time to head back to Vancouver to bring
the resistance back home. I realized
that I was now dedicated to the cause.
Coming
back to Vancouver was difficult. It was impossible to look at life the
same way, but through my experiences up north, I found a new way of
seeing that showed me that we can all contribute to make change and
that solidarity is key. I saw the links between those brothers and
sisters who fought against the tyranny of Imperial Metals and those
who defended Burnaby Mountain against Kinder Morgan—more and
more of us are banding together to show those in power we have had
enough.
But the powers that be are always trying to avoid responsibility. After years of assurances that tanker traffic is perfectly safe, on April 8th, the inevitable happened: an oil spill in Vancouver's Burrard Inlet. A coast guard station located in nearby Kitsilano “would have been able to respond to the incident in six minutes and with the proper equipment to contain a spill from spreading across the water and onto the shoreline."1 However, it was closed in 2013 by the Conservative government.2 As a result the spill response took six hours and the spill - which experts say could have been contained - washed up on beaches and shorelines across the greater Vancouver area. Beaches were closed, marine habitat was devastated and a fishing ban is still in place. In the aftermath, we watched as our city, our province and our country’s government made a complete mockery of environmental protection—the "world class response" was a laughable failure.
Frustrated, we went to beaches where officials declared the cleanup complete, and what we saw infuriated us. As we picked up rocks, we could see countless splotches of toxic bunker fuel, littering the beaches that were now "cleaned up". But remembering our experiences up north at Unist’ot’en, we knew we had to stand up and face this tragedy head-on.
So when we heard that some of the Conservative politicians responsible for this mess were hosting a press conference we decided to show up uninvited and show them the impact of their reckless and ruthless leadership.
If you live in the Vancouver area, we’re asking you to please join us this Saturday, April 25th at 4:00 PM at First Beach/English Bay in Vancouver for a noise demonstration and effigy beating. Bring your pots and pans. Bring your friends, your family, your anger and your heartbreak. You can RSVP here.
Finally, if you are interested in experiencing the Unist'ot'en camp first hand, there is a spring action camp from May 4th-30th. If you can’t make it but want to help from afar you can donate to help them build a traditional healing centre.
With ferocity and hope,
Jesse
Jesse,
SHD.ca
http://www.shd.ca/
SOURCES:
[1]
http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2015/04/now-closed-kitsilano-coast-guard-base-responded-oil-spill-instantly/
[2] http://www.news1130.com/2013/02/20/fire-chief-says-lives-at-risk-with-coast-guard-base-closure/
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