[IPSM] Weyerhaeuser "won't go to court"

[Macdonald Stainsby]

Weyerhaeuser won't go to court
The company says it is taking a wait-and-see approach to roadblocks

Michael McCullough
Vancouver Sun

April 5, 2005
http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=f22bc926-9d33-4e92-80af-93095ec7d29a


QUEEN CHARLOTTES - The company that owns the rights to most of the working
forest in the Queen Charlotte Islands has no plans to seek a court order
to dismantle native-led roadblocks.

"We're taking a wait-and-see approach," Weyerhaeuser Canada spokeswoman
Sarah Goodman said in an interview Monday.

About 50 Haida and non-native protesters have been operating two
checkpoints on roads that access the active logging area in the interior
of Graham Island for the past two weeks, barring access to loggers and
Ministry of Forests employees.

Supported by the Council of the Haida Nation as well as several non-native
community leaders, the protesters are calling for what they consider
sustainable forestry in the islands.

The action was sparked by the announcement of Weyerhaeuser's pending
$1.2-billion sale of its B.C. assets, including the licence to the
Charlottes, to Toronto-based Brascan Ltd. without consulting the Haida.

The protesters have also blocked the company's access to several
barge-loads of logs ready to be picked up.

"As far as we're concerned, nothing has been seized. The logs are exactly
where we left them," Goodman said.

She said several formal processes to address Haida concerns already exist,
without resorting to illegal roadblocks.

Goodman also disputed claims made by islanders in the media, such as their
contention that Weyerhaeuser had not lived up to its 2002 commitment to
log "the profile of the forest" -- that is, the grades and species in
proportion to how they grow in the islands, as opposed to cutting only the
best cedar and spruce.

And she blamed the Haida for the curtailment of logging in recent months
as the Council held up cutting permits.

"Every stick of wood we've harvested has gone through the Haida approval
process," Goodman said.

The company also supported the construction of the new Qay'llnagaay
Heritage Centre in Skidegate with the donation of several large cedar logs
and $100,000 cash, she said. In a story appearing in Monday's Sun, project
head Robert Dudoward said the company had not provided logs required for
the museum and visitor centre.







--
Macdonald Stainsby
http://independentmedia.ca/survivingcanada
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope.
--Brecht.