Last week, I observed an indigenous youth, corralled by three burly RCMP officers, trussed up and hauled away from the Fairy Creek blockade. Earlier, Teal Jones employees set a large iron gate blocking Granite Main, the main access road to the upper Fairy Creek old-growth forest.
As I stood in front of this bold, orange painted iron gate, I pondered what it is we all do with our beautiful hands to earn a living. I “time-travelled” to when the Northwest Mounted Police first built Fort Calgary. Soon afterwards, they would establish exclusion zones (i.e. First Nation reserves), so settlers could partition the land.
Last week, RCMP officers punched, dragged, pepper-sprayed and arrested dozens of non-violent, youthful forest protectors urgently attempting to preserve the last remnants of our ancient forests to help ward off the imminent threat of catastrophic climate change.
History is repeating itself. The well-off will live in exclusion zones – gated communities – while the vast majority will endure a hostile environment, much like the original inhabitants have been doing for centuries.
Mick Rhodes
Sooke
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