From bru at resist.ca Tue Oct 28 19:50:38 2003 From: bru at resist.ca (Bus Riders Union) Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2003 19:50:38 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Busriders-van] BRU Barred from Speaking at TransLink Message-ID: <1874.64.69.83.148.1067399438.squirrel@mail.resist.ca> Monday, October 27, 2003 Bus Riders Union Barred From Speaking at TransLink Board Meetings Prior to TransLink?s Board Meeting in September, the Bus Riders Union was informed on behalf of Chair McCallum that no BRU member would be allowed to speak at TransLink Board Meetings until the BRU signs a contract promising not to disrupt meetings in the future. Since then numerous BRU members and representatives have been denied the right to speak at the meetings. ?TransLink is falling back on intimidation tactics to support their undemocratic processes and regulations,? says Ormond. ?Previously we?ve been told that we can only speak on an issue once, and now 250 members of the BRU have been banned from speaking at all. These decisions taken by TransLink Chair Doug McCallum further marginalize the voices of thousands of bus riders who have shared their experiences and demands with BRU organizers." Asked about the BRU's 'disruptive' behaviour, Ormond replies: "In the past we have been forced to resort to civil disobedience to have the voices of bus riders heard in the boardroom. We will not give up our right to democratic participation or to non-violent protest when the needs of bus riders are ignored. This ban is an illegal measure that is denying over 250 Bus Riders Union members the right to participation in regional decision making.? In response to the ban, Vancouver City Councilor and BRU member Tim Louis has requested to speak at the next TransLink Board meeting on October 29th. TransLink has not yet confirmed whether Mr. Louis will be permitted to speak. Although TransLink is barring the BRU from speaking at its board meetings, BRU organizer Jennifer Efting will be speaking at the Public Consultation on TransLink?s 10-Year Outlook and Three-Year Financial Strategy being held in Vancouver on October 29th. However, the Bus Riders Union maintains that the Public Consultation is a public relations campaign that tokenizes to voices of bus riders. ?In light of TransLink?s track record in regard to public input and democratic process, this public consultation is a sham,? says Efting. ?When hundreds of bus riders spoke out against a the October 2001 service cuts and the April 2002 fare increase, TransLink went ahead and cut service and raised fares. If TransLink really wanted to hear what bus riders have to say, they would facilitate ongoing public input rather than block it at every step of the way. Over and over, TransLink has demonstrated its determination to make decisions based on a big business and privatization agenda, not based on the needs and input of transit dependent bus riders.? Efting will be presenting the Bus Riders Union?s position on the plan, which includes opposition to the proposed fare increase and a significant delay in bus fleet expansion. ?We will not be silenced in our campaign for more buses and lower fares and justice for bus riders,? says Efting. ?We need a democratic board that is accountable to the public and that puts bus riders at the center of public policy. Every week the BRU hears from bus riders who know how we could improve the transit system. These are the demands we have brought to the TransLink board for the past two years, things like restoring Night Owl bus service, prioritizing a region-wide expansion in bus service rather than SkyTrain mega-projects and working towards reducing fares. If TransLink was serious about public participation they would start taking these recommendations seriously and act on them. Instead they have not only ignored bus riders, now they've banned a grassroots organization of transit dependent people from even speaking at their meetings.? Bus Riders Union 407-119 West Pender Street, Vancouver (604) 215-2775 http://bru.resist.ca/ bru at resist.ca From streetpoet77 at hotmail.com Wed Oct 29 13:09:41 2003 From: streetpoet77 at hotmail.com (Garlic Bobcat) Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2003 21:09:41 +0000 Subject: [Busriders-van] Battle for Elk Creek, War for Cheam Message-ID: Forward, print, use -joey Article regarding corporate threats to Cheam First Nation THE BATTLE AT ELK CREEK, THE WAR FOR CHEAM joey only THE FIGHT FOR ELK CREEK Earlier this year Cattermole Timber successfully overturned a court injunction the Western Canada Wilderness Committee had preventing two logging projects. One cut block was at Anderson Creek north of Hope, an old growth forest hidden deep in the round mountains east of the Fraser Canyon. Anderson Creek is at a transition zone from Coast Mountains to British Columbian interior, that region was previously logged in the old fashion when entire mountainsides were devastated by massive clear cuts. The Anderson Creek old growth is a known nesting area for the nearly extinct spotted owl, there may be two dozen of these marvelous owls left in BC. The logging of Anderson Creek received no special attention while the second Cattermole cut block is at Elk Creek, incidently also a known spotted owl habitat, has been much more public. Elk Creek has an intact old growth forest just outside of Chilliwack BC. There has been hot local opposition to logging one of the last remnants of Fraser Valley old growth. A multitude of petitions, letters and a protest had found their way to MLA Barry Penner?s office over the last two years. When the Chilliwack office of the BC Forestry service asked for public commentary 700 people wrote in with 100% opposition to the logging project. The Pilalt at Cheam First Nation strongly oppose the logging of Elk Creek as they liken the forest there to a church, and a sacred place to find medicines. The benefits of this logging project go to one place and that is Cattermole Timber Co. and its stock holders. The logging began at both Elk and Anderson Creek when the forest fire ban was lifted. Since the beginning of October there has been an ongoing series of protests and actions which have complicated but not stopped the logging at Elk Creek. On October 3rd band members at the Cheam reservation blockaded the CN Rail Line that runs through the reserve. The Pilalt demands included no development and logging on their sacred mountains. (I will come back to this). The RCMP sent 12 large vehicles, including a transport, 15 passenger vans and a budget cube truck all full of armed men and dogs totaling about a hundred police officers. Before the police arrived the CTV news truck packed up and fled. The blockade came down quickly but there was a promise to meet the Minister of Forestry Mike Dejong at 11AM the following day. The meeting with Mike Dejong took place at Rosedale?s Community Center. People from the Cheam shed tears for the protection of their sacred forest. In the end it was agreed that a one week cooling period what be put into effect, for one week there was no logging in Elk Creek. Just before the CN rail blockade a protest camp was set up on private property next to the cutblock. On September 28th the campers made first contact with the loggers, at about 9:30 that morning a logger showered an environmentalist with sawdust. Then at 11:30AM a logger dropped a 160 foot tall tree dangerously close to the observers. A similar act at Grizzly Creek in the California Redwoods resulted in the death of 24 year old David Chain when a Pacific Lumber Co. faller dropped a tree on him, that was in 1998. Protesters began to wake up in the mornings and climb up to a helicopter landing pad, occupying the Landing Zone (LZ) so the choppers could not drop off the fallers to log. On October 2nd a logger threatened to shove a camera up someone?s ass. Once a protester suggested that everybody calm down the logger said, ?Why do you think that Cattermole put me in here? It?s not because I am calm,? and warned, ?you better watch out, watch your nights, watch your back doors.? On October 15th, which was after the one week cooling period, a logger chased an environmentalist 50 feet and threatened to ?break their fucking knee caps.? The loggers continuously behaved in threatening and intimidating ways towards the environmentalists. On Friday October 17th the Chilliwack Times reported Chilliwack/Sumas MLA John Les as saying, ?it?s clear these people are deliberately putting themselves in danger, perhaps looking for a degree of martyrdom.? What is even clearer is statements of these sorts add to the culture of violence that has been shaping up in Elk Creek, they almost amount to permission for Cattermole to use violent and coercive means to finish the logging project and run like hell with the money. In July the government granted through Order in Council #732 that Cattermole could export the same amount of wood that is planned to be cut at Elk Creek to off-shore mills. Joe Foy of the Western Wilderness Committee considers ?that to be about 20 offshore jobs?. It is clear that the MLA?s do not desire to protect their communities interests, but instead will side with the profit making venture of the business communities. By Monday October 20th Cattermole was able to resume cutting after the Elk Creek campers had successfully prevented logging since October 15th, a remarkable accomplishment. To prevent the Landing Zone (LZ) from being blocked a new LZ was cut on the far side of the now raging creek. It was the morning of October 23rd, when a Cattermole Timber Co. employee assaulted two protesters, that the new LZ #6 had been found destroyed. Whien the choppers came to deliver engineers to fix the LZ a violent retaliation took place. The assault was similar to the attack by Interfor workers on protesters in the Elaho Valley, perhaps a set plan to use fear/terror to secure business interests. Both of the protesters did not fight back when assaulted to a degree that brought them to Chilliwack Hospital. The attacker actually hit a protester over the head with the bag of spikes that the helicopter delivered. The RCMP were notified but nothing seems to have been done. The Cattermole Timber head office in Vancouver denied that any assault had taken place when phoned, despite the fact that there were witnesses, and a doctors report on the injuries. Regardless of what they say, the escalation of violence at Elk Creek has happened with Cattermole Timbers Co. knowledge. If one examines the assault they may start to question how much it costed for Cattermole?s helicopter to fly in and out of the area four times before the assault. (Full report on: http://elkcreekaction.org) It is not cheap to fly a helicopter, they are generally not used to deliver bags of spikes to hit environmentalists in the head with. With Cattermole employee?s claiming that they are not in Elk Creek because they are calm, it may be entirely plausible that upon seeing the damaged LZ a decision was made to fly in someone that was ?NOT CALM?. Planned or not, this was a violent reaction to the success of disrupting the operation by those opposing it. Cattermole has dropped most of the trees that it was licenced to take. The next goal will be to build a road in to Elk Creek so that they can take the wood. WORKING FOREST INITIATIVE Also on October 23rd, the same day the assault took place at Elk Creek, the BC Liberals pushed through the second reading of the enabling legislation for the Working Forest Innitiative (Bill 46). All 38 Liberals voted in favor, and the third reading likely happened on Monday October 27th. Bill 46 is even more unpopular than the logging at Elk Creek. Tofino Town Council and Tofino Chamber of Commerce passed a resolution to stop the Working Forest Innitiative as it may threaten the multi-million dollar tourism industry at the old growth of Clayoquot Sound. The Union of BC Indian Chiefs, the First Nations Treaty Summit and dozens of First Nations bands have signed a joint statement against any attempt to privatize the forests. The Governments own public consultation found that 97% of 2700 respondents opposed Bill 46. 1% said they supported the Working Forest Initiative, this is happening under the pretext of democracy. This boils down to the fundamental issue, which is that public opinion is no longer a deterrent to big business and governments drive to create profit. The Working Forest Initiative is supposed to give the timber industry economic certainty. It is essentially a privatization scheme in that corporations will be able to receive compensation if they are restricted access to any Crown land that they wish to cut. This will open up 45 million acres of BC public land to private industry. The transferring of public monies and resources into the hands of large and powerful companies is nothing new, yet few people understand how the economy actually works. Privatizing the forests is subsidizing an industry through tax dollars with the left hand, while the right hand cuts people off welfare because ?the money is not there?. While hi-tech logging companies employ fewer people than ever their capacity to take is at its greatest in human history, traditional logging techniques employed far more people taking less wood. The Working Forest Innitiative allows for raw logs to be exported to the United States, which has and will cost lots of rural jobs in BC. The government is subsidizing an industry that refuses to employ the people of BC in the interest of profit, this successfully transfers wealth from the poor to the rich. MLA Barry Penner paid a visit to Elk Creek with Ministry of Forest officials. On October 9th he asked MLA Mike Dejong in the legislature, ?how this decision to log 5% of Elk Creek area was made and describe what, if anything, is being done to ensure that a balanced approach is being taken to managing the forests for the benefit of everyone?? The wording of his question should give one remarkable insight into the governments position. Minister of Forestry Mike Dejong answered that ?the old growth trees were not part of the logging agreement,? even though they are being cut down. Cattermole has access to 110 acres, which is about 5% of the Elk Creek drainage. 60% of the trees will remain standing. 6 hectares have already been completed. According to both the BC Liberals and Cattermole cuts of this nature are good for Old Growth forest, and good for the Spotted Owl. Not only is public debate out of the picture but so is science. GENOCIDAL SKI RESORTS - INDIGENOUS RESISTANCE IN BC The truth is that the fight at Elk Creek is the first act of an unfolding tragedy. The Pilalt at Cheam have been fighting to assert their sovereignty as indigenous people?s of BC. Elk Creek is like a testing grounds for the War For Cheam. The Pilalt have begun to assert their fishing rights on the Fraser River, setting up camp and harvesting salmon through traditional means. On May 13th 2003 the Department of Fisheries (DFO) assaulted Head Band Councilor Sidney Douglas while operating a band owned grader near the fishing camp. Sid Douglas was handcuffed, pepper sprayed and beaten. Community members at Cheam arrived and blockaded the DFO truck from leaving while RCMP officers scrambled for intercept. Regardless of the DFO the Cheam Fishery continued through the summer. Members of the Pilalt community maintained a camp there all summer, fishing with nets, working with family, with children playing in the Fraser River, and food on the bar-b-q. The fight to harvest their own fish was temporarily won yet an overwhelming series corporate interests lay on the horizon, all licking their lips hungry for Pilalt salmon, trees, and mountains. On September 26th three men came to Cheam on behalf of Resorts West. With hi-tech equipment they unveiled plans to put a tramway up Chipmunk ridge near Cheam Peak. $50,000 was offered to the Cheam Band with an acre of land to display First Nations art work, a very insulting proposal! Brent Harley of Brent Harley and Associates (a resort planning group involved in the creation of Whistler) and Norm Gaukel owner of Resorts West, and Gary Youngman (a First Nations consultant) were given a dramatic and unanimous No! These corporate types proposed a 125 person aerial tram claiming that the proposal was not dependent on a ski hill development. However it has been uncovered that Resorts West is planning to build an Olympic sized ski resort complete with an 18th Century Castle on Cheam Peak. This prompted the October 3rd blockade of the CN Rail Line at Cheam, and hence a complicated series of demands based on the complicated threat to the Cheam Nation. (Some demands included at bottom of article). The logging at Elk Creek is really a testing ground for bigger development projects. Can corporate power break the resistance of the Pilalt and their alliances? This is scenario is nothing new in BC, ski resorts and indigenous resistance have been going on bitterly for years. There is no battle as old and ugly as the one where Secwepmec people from the interior lands of Skwelkwekwelt have been fighting the expansion of the Sun Peaks Resort north of Kamloops. This is a very widely publicized fight in which there has been solidarity actions, blockades, protests, camps, arrests and confrontation. The Native Youth Movement was a key element fighting for these sacred interior mountaintops where traditional medicines are gathered, for their hard work they earned an RCMP crackdown. Sun Peaks is owned by capitalist and one time Olympic Gold medalist Nancy Greene Raine. On May 2nd 2000 the St?at?imc nation constructed a camp, Sutikalh, at Cayoosh Creek near Lilloet to stop another $500 development proposal by Nancy Greene Raine?s company (NGR Consultants). Though the unemployed in the ex-logging community of Lilloet were in favor of a Melvin Creek Ski resort the St?at?imc would not allow these pristine mountains to be taken without a fight. NGR Consultants had until August 2003 to renew their Environmental Assessment Order for Melvin Creek, though the camp at Sutikalh still stood in the way. To get the new EAO work had to be done at Melvin Creek, a road or parking lot or something...this author saw with his own eyes that no construction had begun by August. NGR Consultants have dealt with the bitter struggle at Sun Peaks for a long time now, attempts to buy out the St?at?imc failed, and it is likely that the Melvin Creek project will not go ahead. With 11 out of 12 bands still opposing the ski resort it is problematic development despite the fact that the snow in the Cayoosh Mountains is some of the best powder in the world. However the 2010 Olympics still needs Ski Resorts and needs them fast. The blockade in Cheam was met with a solidarity action by the Tsalalhmec Band of the St?at?imc Nation (Seton Lake). Led by long time supporter of the camp at Sutikalh, Chief Garry John, the Seton Lake band blocked a BC Rail freight train for two hours. This action came on October 4th, the day after the Cheam blockade. When Whistler was built in the 1960's the St?at?imc band at Mount Currie was promised jobs, economic growth, and all these other wonderful things. I encourage everyone to take a drive through Mount Currie, a community devastated by poverty which received no benefits from the creation of Whistler. The St?at?imc Peoples are well aware of what ski resorts can do to a community. The logging at Elk Creek, the Working Forest Legislation and the resort proposals for Mount Cheam and the Cayoosh Mountains have things in common. They all serve no public good but only exist to put wealth into the hands of private investors. All of these proposals seek to make corporate wealth from the lands of indigenous peoples in BC while breaking their power; that is economic colonization and genocide. All of these linking attacks on the environment are attacks on the legal owners of that environment which is the First Nations people?s of BC. Almost all of the Nations in BC have never signed a treaty nor surrendered the land that corporations are pulling profits out of directly. It is theft to take things that do not belong to you. It is still theft when Resorts West offers a pathetic $50,000 compensation to the Pilalt for the service of having 20 ski runs on a sacred mountain overlooking the territory. A prolonged conflict is in the making which should be referred to as the Battle for Cheam, amidst a war where corporations hope to take all of the spoils of British Columbia regardless of who or what is in the way. DEMANDS FROM THE CHEAM BLOCKADE ON CN RAIL: -Logging in Elk Creek must be stopped now. -No tram. -No ski runs or resorts. -No building 1200 units. -No development unless authorized by the Pilalt, on our sacred mountains. -Any logs that have been cut so far belong to the Pialt. -No gravel extraction. -plus other demands to CN Rail and issues from previous claims. GET INVOLVED IN THE FIGHT FOR ELK CREEK: June Quip at Cheam: 604-794-5715 Diane Moen at Elk Creek Conservation Coalition: 604-794-3812 http://www.elkcreekaction.org _________________________________________________________________ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail