Blockade by Christine Lowther
West Coast activist Christine Lowther returns to her blockade years of the early nineties, marked by old-growth occupations, lie-ins and barricades on the frontlines of Vancouver Island's ancient temperate rainforests.
In the early 1990s, ancient temperate rainforests on Vancouver Island became the stage for mass blockades against clearcut logging in Nuučaańuł territory. Until the more recent struggles at Fairy Creek, Clayoquot Sound hosted the largest act of civil disobedience in Canada. National news coverage at the time showed mothers with their babies, grandparents, business people, and many other unlikely activists standing on the logging road or locked to makeshift structures, risking arrest to defend these rare, evolved ecosystems. Christine Lowther was arrested in 1992 for lying across the Clayoquot Arm bridge while MacMillan Bloedel fallers tried to drive to work with their chainsaws. Blockade is her gripping, first-hand account of the joys, struggles, and victories of this historic movement.
Drawing from her daily journals recorded at the time, Lowther recounts the vibrant and tense atmosphere of confronting police and loggers with nonviolent civil disobedience. She vividly describes creative direct actions—themed blockades, lock-downs, nighttime barricade building, occupations of ancient trees and government offices. Blockade contemplates the stark realities of the movement, including threats of police violence and the disturbing collusion between the RCMP and extraction corporations. Despite the powderkeg atmosphere, Lowther found wonder by kayaking the inlets and settling down to life in unceded Tlaoquiaht territory where she still gratefully resides.
Blockade is a celebration of resilience and a powerful account of successful environmental activism. It highlights the continuing threat to old-growth forests, with a nod to Fairy Creek, and commends the June 18, 2024 announcement of 76,000 hectares of new conservancies in Clayoquot (Tlaoquiaht) Sound, nearly doubling the protected temperate rainforest within this iconic region.
Thrilling, evocative, and necessary, Christine Lowther's Blockade showcases the need to defend remnant intact crucial ecosystems hand in hand with the Indigenous peoples whose ancestral gardens these lands are. It is a rallying cry of hope for all those who stand up for the natural world and a roadmap for future generations of defenders. (From Caitlin Press)
Hazard, Home. She served as Tofino's poet laureate from 2020-2022.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Canada Standard
9 hours ago
- Canada Standard
The quiet killing of the Canadian giantess forests and urgent reminder to push the climate change agenda
On Friday, almost the entire country is under an Environment Canada air quality warning as wildfires continue to rage across the Prairies. As world leaders prepare to gather in Alberta in Kananaskis for the G7 summit next week, some activist groups across Canada say they are planning protests. The Group of G7 is consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. But as of Saturday afternoon, there were 59 fires burning in the province, with 23 of them classified as out of control. Since mid-May more than 580,000 hectares have burned in Alberta so far. A wildfire burning in northern Alberta is not only threatening the homes of hundreds of residents in various communities, but also major oil and gas companies with operations in the area. Security officials at the G7 leaders summit in Kananaskis say plans are in place, including the possibility of evacuations, if wildfires become a serious threat. Kananaskis, located at the foothills and front ranges of the Rocky Mountains. Its western edge borders Banff National Park and the Alberta-B.C. boundary. More than 30,000 people in the prairies have been forced to leave their homes due to the numerous fires that have broken out in recent days. According to government data, the fires are caused by campfires of humans. But, several environmental groups are denouncing the oil companies' practices of extracting tar sands. In fact, Alberta's oil companies have been draining the prairies for decades. Despite promises from industry and government to reduce water use in oil sands operations and restore wetlands that have been mined to a depth of more than 200 meters, the delta's ecosystem of the Athabasca River declined. It will become irreversible if oil companies actually triple their production in Alberta, as they have announced, by 2030. Extracting oil from the tar sands requires enormous quantities of water. For every barrel of oil produced, at least 2.6 barrels of water must be extracted from the Athabasca River or local groundwater. For so-called "in situ" operations, which use steam to separate the oil from the sand underground and then pump the bitumen to the surface, freshwater consumption is less, but still significant. The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) forecasts that production of crude bitumen-the thick, sticky oil found in Alberta's oil sands region-will reach four million barrels per day in 2033, up from 3.4 million barrels per day last year. If we do the math, that's more or less 10 million barrels of freshwater water per day being pumped to produce the petrolium. The quiet killing of the Canadian giantess forests and its various animal species is the urgent reminder for the Canadian population to push the climate change agenda. During the G7 summit, environmentalists, anti-imperialist coalitions and Indigenous advocates, among many other groups most raise their voices. They must demand that Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime minister, legislate quickly to stop the devastation of the canadian forest even at the risk of displeasing some governments in Western Canada. ( Pressenza, Montreal ) Source: Pressenza
CTV News
20 hours ago
- CTV News
AFN to hold emergency meeting on major projects bill
Watch National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak on the upcoming emergency meeting to discuss Bill C-5.
Global News
21 hours ago
- Global News
Prime Minister Carney's G7 invite to Modi sends ‘wrong' message, Liberal MP says
Prime Minister Mark Carney is facing criticism from within his own party for inviting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the upcoming G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alta., despite allegations the Modi government orchestrated a campaign of violence in Canada. Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal, who represents a riding in Surrey, B.C. with a large Sikh community, disagrees with Carney and says dozens of his constituents have reached out to him in 'outrage.' 'It is sending the wrong message… that anyone can come into Canada and kill Canadians and they can walk away with impunity.' 1:28 Canada reaffirms RCMP's independence in ongoing assassination probe despite India's invitation to G7 'It's not only the Sikh Canadians I'm hearing from. I'm hearing from a wide range of constituents on this issue.' Story continues below advertisement Last fall, the RCMP accused India of homicide, extortion and violence on Canadian soil. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Former prime minister Justin Trudeau stood up in the House of Commons in September 2023, saying Canada had 'credible evidence' agents of the Indian government were involved in the murder of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. 3:02 Carney asked if he believes Modi was involved in murder of B.C. Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar '[India] has got to be held accountable… and fully cooperate with this investigation,' said Dhaliwal, pointing out that Nijjar lived in the his B.C. riding. New Delhi has long denied any involvement in the killing and accused Trudeau of pursuing a 'political agenda.' Carney defended reaching out to Modi, saying, 'There are certain countries that should be at the table' for G7 discussions and that India has agreed to 'continued law enforcement dialogue.' Story continues below advertisement 1:55 RCMP unveils security operation plans for G7 summit On Saturday, Carney unveiled Canada's 'priorities' for the summit, which will place between June 15 and 17. They include securing partnerships, building energy security, and protecting communities and the world by countering foreign interference and transnational repression. 'The fact that leaders from a number of countries have been invited to [G7] meeting does not and should not detract from the importance of the independent investigation that is ongoing,' Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand told journalists Saturday. Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, says the Carney government made the right call giving Modi a seat at the G7 table. 'We're in a different moment when it comes to international relations,' said Nadjibulla. India — the world's fifth largest economy — has been invited to the last six G7 meetings. Nadjibulla says Canada needs to recalibrate its relationships in the Indo-Pacific to reduce its 'overreliance' on the U.S. Story continues below advertisement 'From tariffs to the trade agenda and to the realignment that we're seeing around the world of different powers, I think it's important for Canada to approach diplomacy differently,' she said.
