anaemia mame Wednesday, September 18, 1991 I Letters coWHE ED ITOR Appeals ignored The Lasca Wilderness Direct Action Group is seeking an injunction from the Supreme Court to prevent the Ministry of Forests from issuing a permit for road building into the proposed West Arm Wilderness Park area. Lasca Creek is nine miles north of Nelson near the Harrop and Proctor communities of 500 people. Despite being served with the injunction notice Sept. 9, the ministry issued the permit to Atco Lumber on Sept. 10 and construction of the 9.5 kilometres of road threatens to proceed. Appeals for a 60-day of the road buildi to MLA Howard Dirks have been made by the Regional District of Central Kootenay, Nelson city council and the West Arm Land Use Forum. Additionally a 3,000-name petition of Kootenay Lake area residents has been gathered. The parks proposal was made in April to the Parks and Wilderness for the 90s program (a joint program of the ministries of Parks and Forests) by the West Arm Watershed Alliance, the parent organization. Currently, only 6.3 per cent of B.C.’s land base is set aside for parks. No other unroaded, undisturbed forested wilderness from lakeshore to mountain ridges has been allocated for preservation in this latitude or in Timber Supply Area E. It is the largest unroaded ation Southern Columbi forest remaining in the interior of B.C. The proposed 55,000-hectare park contains rare old-growth forest as well as a diversity of wildlife. In addition, aboriginal land claim issues are as yet unresolved. The area is of significance to the Lower Kootenay Band. Since the 1986 clear cuts on Red Fish Creek, the West Arm Watershed Alliance has made requests to the Ministry « of Forests As a result, this massive arrest was achieved totally without fear or resentment between the acting parties. Nothing, however, could wipe away the deep painfulness of this situation. When the blockade began over a week ago, one newspaper portrayed it as a play staged to lure the media into giving attention to the protesters’ cduse. Apparently the newspaper "8 1 writer was d: If for a compreh plan for the West Arm of Kootenay Lake. A land-use plan would include consideration of the impact of current logging practices such as clear-cutting and slash burning on global warming and locally on air and water quality, tourism and real estate. Local citizeris would be part of the decision-making process. The Lasca Wilderness Direct Action Group is committed to preserving this proposed wilderness area and preventing the road and bajld;: The group will use all democratic, legal and non-violent means. Ramona Faust Fran Wallis there were no protesters hurling insults, no police brandishing weapons, no loggers ready to drive over people with their trucks, it must not be serious. Yet if those things had happened, the Instead, what I saw at Hasty Creek were people who had so deep a feeling for democracy, justice and law enforcement that they wept or silently held in their pain to see the noble institutions of law made to serve injustice and corporate greed. The hours they spent under arrest were symbolic of a much larger loss of freedom they and all British Columbians have endured every day for years, in which we have been unable to protect our rights to the basic necessities of life: clean water and a healthy environment. Now people of good conscience are saying: “We're not going to stand for it anymore,” and they’re being arrested. It’s b ly plain newspapers might have d it. Perhaps one has to be there to feel the raw reality of these arrests. Not many of us have had the occasion to experience that age-old human phenomenon in which people, en masse, lay down their comforts and personal concerns to confront a government which, for too long, has administered injustice. This pinit constitutes the very fi Lasca Wilderness Direct Acti Group Nelson Won’t forget arrests On Sept. 6, 84 people were arrested at the Hasty Creek logging blockade. Before the arrests, there had been excellent communication and cooperation between the protesters and the RCMP. ‘acy. This is how decnseracy began, this‘is what has made it as good as it is, and because there is still a long way to go, this is what is needed to make it better. Some people disparage the protesters as “lawbreakers,” as if they are no different than people who have contempt for the law and who cannot feel the rights of others because they can only feel their own selfish motives. that when laws are arenaty used by corrupt politicians, even the best and brightest of society will become lambreaert, and will be ennobled vy. it. Some would even rather go to jail than accept this shabby counterfeit of democracy in which the rights of rich corporations to make more money supercedes the rights of the average citizen to the basic necessities of life. Beneath the dignity of the way these arrests were conducted is a scathing indignity: Not one carried out by the protesters or the police, but by the B.C. government against the people and the very institution we call democracy. None of us who were present will forget these wounds at election time. Anne Sherrod New Denver CHICKEN & SEAFOOD ae BE Bx CALL US TODAY 365-5304 *~\ME What’son your mind? 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