OPEN LETTER TO PREMIER JOHN HORGAN...

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Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00

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OPEN LETTER TO PREMIER JOHN HORGAN, SOLICITOR GENERAL MIKE FARNWORTH, ATTORNEY GENERAL DAVID EBY, ENVIRONMENT MINISTER GEORGE HEYMAN, INDIGENOUS RELATIONS MINISTER MURRAY RANKIN, TOM AND DICK JONES OF TEAL JONES GROUP AND DEPUTY COMMISSIONER DWAYNE MCDONALD OF THE RCMP

So this is how you want Fairy Creek to go down? With RCMP smashing car windows, conducting illegal searches, stealing personal possessions and giving them to Teal Jones, threatening and inflicting harm on peaceful protesters, defying court orders that declare the illegality of exclusion zones, attempting to fetter the press, targeting Indigenous and people of colour with long-standing deep-seated and systemic racism? This is the best you can do in dealing with peaceful protesters in a civil society, and who have every right to practice civil disobedience?

This is how you want to be forever remembered? Make no mistake, your names will be etched into the annals of history as those representatives of state, corporations and law enforcement who cared more for protecting the financial interests of big business than the interests of the people. Was this a good use of the millions of taxpayer dollars spent on the RCMP tactical squad? It’s a safe bet the... expense far exceeds any stumpage fees coming to government from TFL#46.

What we have just witnessed is the true nature of the forces aligned against the people, – the Indigenous peoples who hold rights and title to natural resources, the BC citizens who work hard every day to make ends meet, the coming generations who may never know the beauty and grace of an intact forest. Yet, what we have endured at the hands of the RCMP over the past three months is but a fraction of what Indigenous people have suffered over hundreds of years of oppression. We, as settlers, have come to realize the true history of how our society was built and we are here to stand with our Indigenous brothers and sisters to see that the balance of power changes now and forever.

The fact that you continue to forge this unholy alliance in the face of the existential climate crisis in which we are now living, the scientists who call for the preservation of old growth forests and all the biodiversity they contain, the recent IPCC report, the inherent rights of Indigenous people to their unceded territories speaks volumes of the depth of your lack of understanding of your duty to Indigenous peoples, citizens and the generations to come.

Peaceful, honourable and immovable – that has been our stance all along. It is certainly not yours. While we may have lost some ground, we remain steadfast. The time has come to elevate our campaign to an international audience, where the voices of the world can rise in protest at the destruction of our old growth forests. We will continue our work in peace.

By the way, this is a photo of old growth forest that once stood at Caycuse. It was harvested in May 2021. All that intact forest, with its biodiversity, food, medicines and carbon capacity, is gone.

FROM: Kathy Code

Photo credit: Will O’Connell