May 6, 1991
Enclosed for your information are newspaper articles regarding the
dynamiting of a key logging bridge in Pemberton, B.C., the burning
of another key logging bridge on Vancouver Island and the early
morning shooting of a non-aboriginal man on the Kahnawake Indian
Reserve near Montreal.
These events are predictable to anyone following the handling of
aboriginal and environmental issues in Canada and likely presage
more of the same in coming months.
Attachment #1: re-printed without permission from The Globe and
Mail, Thursday, April 18, 1991
BRIDGE TO LOGGING ROAD BLOWN UP
Region where B.C. Indians say burial grounds threatened
By Deborah Wilson
British Columbia Bureau
PEMBERTON, B.C.
An early morning bomb blast yesterday blew up a logging bridge
leading to a road that has been the scene of bitter clashes between
loggers and Indians.
Sergeant Peter Montague, an RCMP spokesman, said the blast at the
Green River bridge, about four kilometres east of Pemberton, was
heard about 2 a.m. by residents of this logging town and the Mount
Currie Indian reserve.
The bridge, about half a city block long, provides access to the
Ure Creek logging road, where members of the Lil'wat Peoples'
Movement, a faction of the Mount Currie Indians, have recently
mounted roadblocks. Some members of the movement were arrested
there in February as they tried to prevent construction of the
logging road, which they say will destroy ancestral burial grounds.
Lyn Crompton, a lawyer who has been working for the Lil'wats, said
she did not think they were responsible. "This has been a non-
violent movement right throughout," Ms. Crompton said.
She said, however, that other natives have no doubt been watching
the Lil'wats' unsuccessful efforts to pursue their claim to
sovereignty through the courts.
"The (Duffy Lake) roadblock was 116 days long and withstood the
pressure of surveillance, police dogs and snipers in the bushes and
they never armed themselves," she said.
However, she said, "If you turn for justice and there's none, then
the frustration's going to emerge."
Mount Currie band chief Kathy Wallace would not comment. Lil'wat
spokesman Terri John could not be reached for comment.
A police explosives expert said about a case of dynamite appears to
have been distributed at five spots on the bridge.
Heavy beams were splayed around the bridge, which was sabotaged at
least once before. On April 21, 1989, it was set on fire and was
partly rebuilt.
Grant McKinnon, a logging engineer for International Forest
Products Ltd., said it had also been damaged with chain saws.
Also last week, a non-native supporter of the Lil'wats was arrested
after he stopped construction of the Ure Creek road by perching in
a tree in the blasting area.
Sergeant Harold McLaughlin of the Pemberton RCMP detachment said
dynamite was stolen Jan. 4 from the Ure Creek logging site, where
it was being kept by the company building the road for
International Forest Products.
Sgt. McLaughlin would not comment on whether yesterday's blast was
believed to be related to the Lil'wats' land dispute. He said
there is no proof that the stolen dynamite is connected to
yesterday's blast.
Drew Mackay said the dynamiters may actually assist the company in
the end, as the bridge was to be moved in a year or so.
Alan LeBlanc, co-owner of a logging company, said the blast has
shut down his operation, which was moving eight to 10 truckloads a
day across the bridge.
"It's a lot of wasted money and time," he said.
The blast follows nearly 10 months of native roadblocks and
conflict between the Lil'wat movement and loggers, beginning just
after the violence at Oka, Que., last year when police stormed a
roadblock and a police officer was killed in the ensuing gunfire.
Last November, RCMP officers tore down the first Lil'wat barricade
at Duffy Lake Road after it had crippled the local economy.
Contempt charges against the 64 blockaders arrested culminated in
the past week with 62 convictions.
Earlier last week, the company had been given permission to
continue work on the road when a Lil'wat appeal of an injunction
against their blockade was dismissed.
Attachment #2: re-printed without permission from The Globe and
Mail, Friday, April 19, 1991
NO ARREST IN LOGGING BRIDGE DYNAMITING
Divided community fears more violence
By Deborah Wilson
British Columbia Bureau
PEMBERTON, B.C.
Simmering tensions between natives and non-natives have flared
again in this timber-dependent community over the dynamiting of a
key logging bridge early Wednesday.
Police had made no arrests and identified no suspects yesterday,
but that did not prevent some residents from immediately directing
their suspicions at a faction on the Mount Currie Indian reserve
who support road blockades.
Frustrations over the economic losses to tourism and logging
operations that resulted from the blockades by the Lil'wat Peoples
Movement have divided the communities for most of the past year,
and this week some residents predicted further incidents on both
sides of the divide.
"If we have a repeat of last year," said Peter Staehli, a tree-
falling contractor, "there's going to be bloodshed."
Maisie Marnett, a teacher and member of the Mount Currie band who
had been a vocal opponent of the blockades, said she fears a
backlash from non-natives, and she suggested that another bridge on
the Duffy Lake Road -- a public road linking Pemberton with the
B.C. Interior -- is a prime target for sabotage.
"Pemberton's really stirred up and it causes a lot of fear for
everybody here," Ms. Marnett said.
Sergeant Harold McLaughlin of the Pemberton RCMP detachment
acknowledged the tensions. "There have been a great deal of
frustrations expressed by people in both communities, Mount Currie
and Pemberton," he said.
"I'm hoping that cool heads will prevail and restraint will be
exercised."
However, comments this week from Pemberton and Mount Currie
residents suggested that the deep well of bitterness and resentment
between many natives and non-natives in the fertile valley in the
shadow of the Coast Mountains will remain whether or not anyone is
eventually found responsible for the bridge bombing.
The Green River bridge that was dynamited Wednesday, with resulting
damage to one section, provides road access to the Ure Creek road
about 14 kilometres away.
Attachment #3: re-printed without permission from The Edmonton
Sun, Sunday, April 21, 1991
RESERVE WARNING ISSUED
Non-natives urged to avoid driving through Mohawk area
MONTREAL (CP)
Non-natives should avoid driving through the Kahnawake reserve
because tensions between Mohawks and area residents are running
high, says the director of the Quebec provincial police.
"If we don't go there, I recommend to people they don't go there
either," said Robert Lavigne in a brief interview at police
headquarters.
Mohawks manning a Warrior Society checkpoint on the south-shore
reserve opened fire on a car carrying four men from neighboring
Chateauguay a week ago, injuring one.
Using Shortcut
The men, all in their 20s, were using the reserve as a shortcut to
return to Chateauguay after a night out in Montreal.
Mohawk peacekeepers are investigating the incident. They have
agreed to supply provincial police with the names of the seven
people at the barricade at the time of the incident, Lavigne said.
The situation on the reserve is "explosive" and another blowup this
summer can't be ruled out, the police official said.
Mohawks from Kahnawake blocked the Mercier bridge -- which links
Montreal to the populous south-shore suburbs -- for six weeks last
summer. It was a show of support for Mohawks at Oka, who were
locked in an armed standoff over a land dispute.
Can't ease tension
Lavigne said Friday police can't do anything to help diminish the
level of tension between the Mohawks of Kahnawake and Chateauguay
residents.
"The problem has to be settled at a very basic level, and that's a
matter for the politicians, not the police."
Attachment #4: re-printed without permission from The Globe and
Mail, Tuesday, April 30, 1991
ARSON SUSPECTED IN LOGGING BRIDGE FIRE
Work grinds to halt in disputed area
By Deborah Wilson
British Columbia Bureau
VANCOUVER
Logging operations near Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island's west
coast were at a standstill yesterday after a fire -- apparently set
by an arsonist -- burned the only bridge into an area slated for
cutting despite strong opposition from environmentalists.
The fire, discovered early Sunday by a MacMillan Bloedel Ltd.
engineer, destroyed a section of the 90-metre Kennedy River bridge
and cut off access to the company's logging operations. About 210
loggers have been laid off temporarily.
Sergeant P.T. Phillips of the RCMP detachment at Ucluelet, about 20
kilometres from the bridge, said the fire started "under...very
suspicious circumstances."
Geoffrey Lyons, acting manager of MacMillan Bloedel's Kennedy Lake
division, said the timing and location of the fire could not have
been more disruptive for logging in the area. All work was about
to move across the bridge, since cutting in another area was
suspended Friday to await the completion of a report by a
provincially appointed committed. The panel is reviewing logging
plans to prepare a long-term strategy for what Mr. Lyons described
as the "environmentally controversial" area.
"If someone aware of the operations wanted to go for the jugular,
that would be the artery," Mr. Lyons said in an interview. He said
some early estimates of the damage were around $100,000, and that
he hopes to have loggers back at work in a week or so, even if they
have to travel by boat across the river.
Mr. Lyons said tires had been piled on top of the bridge by someone
to feed the fire, which burned the top decking, the supporting
stringers and scorched many of the pilings.
Environmentalists had been angered last month by the provincial
government's approval of logging of old-growth timber stands in the
Lower Bulson River area while an official study group reviews
logging plans for the entire Clayoquot Sound area.
Julie Draper of the environmental group Friends of the Clayoquot
Sound, which opposed old-growth logging around the sound, said it
is the last extensive area of old-growth forests on Vancouver
Island.
Michael Morton of the pro-logging Share the Clayoquot group
condemned the fire and said his organization would give a $1,000
reward for the arrest and conviction of whoever burned the bridge.
Mr. Morton said he has no idea who burned the bridge, but added, "I
would assume it's nobody that's involved in logging, for starters."
Attachment #5: re-printed without permission from The Edmonton
Journal, Tuesday, April 30, 1991
BURNING OF BRIDGE RESULTS IN LAYOFFS
Forest company MacMillan Bloedel laid off 210 employees Monday
after a fire heavily damaged a logging bridge in a controversial
logging area of Vancouver Island.
The bridge to Kennedy Lake, about 15 km north of Ucluelet, is on
the only route for logging trucks out of MacMillan Bloedel work
sites in Clayoquot Sound.
Geoff Lyons, the company's Kennedy Lake district manager, said
neither the police nor the company knows who caused the fire. The
area has been the focus of environmental protests in recent years.
--- FD 1.99c
* Origin: Lubicon News Station: Edmonton, Alberta Canada (89:682/432)
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