[van-announce] Battle for Elk Creek, War for Cheam

[Garlic Bobcat]

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

_________________________________________________________________
Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE*  
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail