NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 22, '93
RAINFOREST VETERANS ARRESTED IN
CLAYOQUOT
Rainforest veterans from Denman Island enjoyed a high-spirited reunion
this morning with friends who served in the Tsitika, Walbran, Strathcona and
Salt Spring campaigns. Together with hundreds of new faces illuminated by
MacBlo logging trucks, the Denman contingent waved Maple Leaf flags and sang
"Oh, Canada...I stand on guard for trees" as smiling police officers made
21arrests. Before being led away, well-known Canadian author Des Kennedy told
the cheering assembly: "I am standing here with absolute respect for the court
and the officers of the court, but with absolute determination to save the
rainforest."
Several teachers, carpenters and a retired professer, as well as a
social worker, plumber, "mom" and log-scaler were among those arrested today.
"I see the workers being used as front-line troops by the corporations to
continue their destruction on the BC coast," log-scaler Ron Dobie said. "I've
seen pristine river valleys completely gutted of trees. I feel complicit
myself for having creamed my income from the forests for a number of years.
It's time to say - enough."
Two fallers on their way in to log one of the last big temperate
rainforests left on Earth stopped to call for an end to raw log exports and
the creation of remanufacturing and smaller businesses in small communities.
Nodding to 200 protesters lining the logging road, one logger said: "It's good
to see there is that side of it - otherwise the company would have free rein
to do what they wanted." His buddy agreed that the summer-long protests were
helping change forest practices. "We're too much under the microcscope here,"
he said, "because the demands of the people of Canada say: `Hey, slow down.
Let's take care of our country.''"
The Clayoquot blockade continues, with caravans from Hornby Island,
Courtenay and Salt Spring Island expected to arrive over the next three days.
For more information call Will Thomas 725-4218