This is the latest update on today's fast-breaking situation at the site
of the Nuxalk Nation protest of the destruction of their land and ancient
rainforest.
[ As indicated in their press release of last Friday, the Heiltsuk Treaty
Office would seem to dispute the ownership of this land by the Nuxalk,
since they claim that their hereditary chiefs ordered the Nuxalk people
and environmental protestors out of what they claim is their territory.
There was, however, no mention in that press release concerning whether
any of the environmental concerns are shared by the Heiltsuk Nation.
--Gary (gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us) ]
For Immediate Release
LONG RUNNING RAINFOREST BLOCKADE ENDS WITH 24 ARRESTS
HEREDITARY CHIEF AGAIN ARRESTED FOR PROTECTING SACRED RAINFOREST
(KING ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA)--- JUNE 24, 1997 --- Twenty four
people were arrested this morning in one of British Columbia's longest
running and most effective protests to stop clearcutting of the province's
ancient rainforests. The blockade by the Nuxalk First Nation and four
environmental groups, stopped all clearcut logging by International Forest
Products (Interfor) at Ista on King Island for a total of eighteen days.
Forty members of the RCMP descended on the blockade at 6:45 this morning,
and arrested 24 people who were preventing Interfor contractors from
clearcut logging Ista. Nuxalk Hereditary Chief Qwatsinas (Edward Moody)
was immediately arrested at the blockade for the second time in two years,
along with five other members of the Nuxalk Nation. Other arrestees
included 13 Canadians, five Europeans and one from the US. All arrestees
refused to sign a 'terms of release' form at the site, and have been flown
down to Vancouver to appear before a Supreme Court of Canada judge on
Wednesday at 10am.
The RCMP climbing team was also on site, and scaled a large tripod built
from logs erected at the edge of a 37 hectare clearcut, (the size of 74
football fields) removing a Nuxalk and a Belgian woman. The RCMP also cut
away a Canadian and a German woman who were locked onto a grapple yarder -
a large piece of logging equipment used to load logs from a clearcut.
"My mother has been arrested for protecting Ista. My grandfather was
arrested too." said Colette Schooner, 16, of the Nuxalk Nation who has
been sitting in the tripod for 11 days. "Now I am here for the youth and
future generations to stop the clearcutting of this sacred rainforest."
"Having witnessed the huge clearcuts at Ista, I am suprised and shocked
that Canada still allows this kind of logging to take place." said
Patricia Fromm of Germany, who was locked to the grapple yarder.
The blockade site Ista on King Island is sacred to the Nuxalk Nation. It
is the place, according to the Nuxalk creation story, where the first
woman descended to the world. The Great Bear Rainforest, of which Ista is
a part, is of extreme ecological importance because it contains the
world's largest remaining areas of temperate rainforest in the world.
The King Island blockade began on June 6 after eight hereditary chiefs of
the Nuxalk Nation invited environmentalists to the area to participate in
an effort to stop the clearcut logging.
"We are thankful that our allies have responded to our invitation to stop
the clearcutting of our territory by Interfor" stated Head Hereditary
Chief Nuximlayc of the Nuxalk Nation.
Ista was the site of 22 arrests in 1995, 17 of which were Nuxalk first
nation people. Now in 1997, there have been more arrests and still the
clearcutting of Ista and many other rainforest valleys continues.
"Instead of riling up the people of BC with his anti-environmental
rhetoric, Glen Clarke would do well to start listening to the people of
BC, who have today given up their rights and freedom in defense of this
locally sacred and globally important rainforest. " commented Gavin
Edwards, spokesperson for the Forest Action Network.
Meanwhile, a second logging protest has begun further south as six
Greenpeace activists boarded a fully loaded log barge laden with old
growth rainforest, unfurling a banner reading "Don't Buy Rainforest
Destruction." The log barge, carrying trees cut by Interfor, has just
made its way to Port Hardy on Northern Vancouver Island. RCMP officers
are currently on the scene.
PHOTOS AND VIDEO OF THE BLOCKADE ARRESTS AVAILABLE SHORTLY. Contact:
Forest Action Network: Gavin Edwards in Vancouver: 250 739-4782; Greg
Higgs on site: 250-949-4026. Nuxalk House of Smayusta: 250-799-5376.
Greenpeace: Tzeporah Berman or Mary MacNutt in Vancouver: 604-253-7701;
or 604-220-7701/416-505-1792 (cell phones); Tamara Stark at the blockade
site: 011-872-624-628-410.
Gavin Edwards
FOREST ACTION NETWORK
Box 625, Bella Coola, BC
Canada V0T 1C0
TEL (250) 799-5800
FAX (250) 799-5830
gedwards@envirolink.org
http://www.fanweb.org/
** CAMPAIGNING TO SAVE THE GREAT BEAR RAINFOREST **
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F O R E S T A C T I O N N E T W O R K
Box 625, Bella Coola BC, Canada, V0T 1C0
TEL (250) 799-5800
FAX (250) 799-5830
EMAIL fanbc@envirolink.org
http://www.fanweb.org
CAMPAIGNING TO SAVE THE GREAT BEAR RAINFOREST
-----------------------------------------------------