Resistance on Vancouver Island
By Ro Debree, Doran Doyle and Gloria Ganter
In an article written for the Catholic News Times
December 16, 2001

Every thee minutes a loaded logging truck leaves the Cowichan Valley surrounding the town of Duncan on Vancouver Island. Five days a week, eight hours a day, Canadian logs are being taken to the coast and shipped to the U.S and beyond.

Now, exported logs mean exported jobs. The Youbou Sawmill, which for 73 years provided employment in the Valley - as many as 650 jobs in 1973 - was permanently closed in January 2001, terminating the last 230 mill workers.

We discovered that the TimberWest Forest Corporation, the current mill owner, found it could make more money exporting raw logs than by running manufacturing plants in B.C. In one year, 1998-1999 the company's raw log exports increased by 80 per cent.

We are three British Columbian women who investigated the situation, found it the tip of an unsavory iceberg and resisted its community destroying effects. The mill closure and the resulting hardship is the result of a less-than-ethical policy of this company and the importance of our provincial government. TimberWest, while harming our way of life, nonetheless enjoys heavy investment from the Ontario Teachers' Pension Fund and the Quebec Teachers' Pension Fund.

Most of our adult lives, we have been members of the Roman Catholic diocese of Victoria, formed in the social-justice traditions of the church by a bishop, Remi de Roo, truly committed to justice. Our concerns have brought us into the public arena, including membership in the Raging Grannies, work around the plight of children born with fetal alcohol syndrome and now, attending to social misery caused by the closure of the sawmill at Youbou, an event that sparked protest, some civil disobedience and some subsequent arrests.

The Youbou Sawmill could have operated for over two years on the wood fibre that TimberWest has removed from the Cowichan Valley over the past few months. TimberWest said, "These assets were uneconomic for our company to continue to operate and did not meet the company's return requirements. " But the disappearance of a clause known as Clause 7, which tied the continued operation of a manufacturing plant - at Youbou to the Crown-tenured Tree Farm License 46 was uncovered. This clause had been "inadvertently" omitted in 1997 when the license between TimberWest and the B.C. government was renewed. Clause 7 was designed to protect the social and economic well-being of the area where the trees were harvested. With it gone, the B.C. government was powerless to intervene in the closure.

On May 1, 2001 we protested the decision, the corporate rationale and the process by which the decision has been made by obstructing the arrival of a crane sent to dismantle the mill. We demanded that the company await the findings of an inquiry into the matter. Emotions were running high as Doran was arrested along with six others, handcuffed and taken to a jail cell. Her case was heard in Duncan later with the others in the Supreme Court in Nanaimo. Unpleasant as it was the action was greeted with wide spread community support. Doran was freed and the case dismissed.
Doran, who protested the clear-cut logging at Clayquot Sound in 1992 and the American nuclear submarine installation at Nanoose Bay in 1997 says, "The necessity for civil disobedience drew me again. The season was Pentecost and I was borne up by the Holy Spirit. We realize that TimberWest may be legally correct but they have been destructive of community: legality is not the same as ethics or justice." We have been able, in this time of crisis, to draw on our strong background in social teaching and our solidarity with each other. Gloria has taken the cause to the legislature in Victoria and the TimberWest annual meeting in Vancouver. Our years in the diocese have helped prepare us to hear and respond in faith to a call to action.

The Youbou Sawmill was more than just a place to work; it was a community of skilled peoples. Families had worked at the mill for three generations - Gloria's husband for 35 years. Rooted in the community, citizens had enjoyed financial security and peace of mind. When the TimberLess Society was formed to provide support for displaced workers, to inform the public about forest resource issues, and to challenge the fact that the forest land base in the Cowichan Valley is controlled by corporate owners whose interests do not coincide with the public interest, we all past middle age, stepped forward to help.

TimberWest owns 10 per cent of Vancouver Island (835,000 acres) in private woodland. It exports raw logs from this land and is lobbying to do the same from Crown land. The company is poised to sell the land for development once the trees are logged. At a demonstration in Vancouver during the federal election campaign, we tried in vain to get Prime Minister Chrétien to ban raw log exports in our area. The company is exploiting the economy, the ecology and the social fabric of the community.

People sometimes describe the place where we live as "magical." The broom thistle and reed canary grass, the violets, camas and sweet gale: all thrive here. But we are also aware that we are living in a climate of near-war. Toxic invasion, giant new retail outlets, and salmon stranded in side pools make it seem as if "lamentation is everywhere."

Still, we are heartened and sustained in our efforts by reports in the alternative media of many social movements in Canada working, like us, for change in the long haul.

Back to Coments & Questions