Thousands showed up to protest against the Enbridge pipeline proposal.
Thousands of protesters gathered at Science World Nov. 16, to protest the Enbridge pipeline, but will the government listen to the growing number of voices opposing the project?
“If democracy works at all, this project really should be rejected,” said Ben West, Tar Sands Campaign Director and ForestEthics Advocacy. ForestEthics was one group that helped organize the protest in Vancouver, along with other environmental groups in the area. The protest was one of 130 that took place across the country under the banner Defend Our Climate.
One environmental campaign that could be called successful was the Clayoquot Sound blockades in the summer of 1993. More than 850 people were arrested, the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. The group blocked the road in attempt to stop logging in the area, which is around Tofino.
David Tindall wrote in an article published in the Globe and Mail on Aug. 12, some of the factors that made Clayocut Sound a success:
Groups were already formed trying to stop logging in the area. “Friends of Clayocut Sound had been writing letters for years, they still write letters,” said Jan Bates, one of the volunteer directors throughout the protests. “We were already friends, neighbours and community members, so organizing us was pretty simple. Put a couple posters downtown and you got a meeting. It was pre-Internet.”
Not only had many Canadians been to the area and were familiar with it, the media was broadcasting stories about a population willing to be arrested for a moral cause. “The world fell in love with Tofino and Clayocut Sound and was inspired by our blockades and standing up for what we believed in,” Bates said.
Lastly, they had protests and blockades with a huge number of participants. “There was peace camps, and there was the blockades, basically across the highway from each other. At the peace camps, people would roll in from where ever they were coming from, thousands of people, and pitch a tent,” Bates said. “The blockades went on for months, so every day we showed and whoever was willing to be arrested stood out at the front of the line and stayed standing and stopped the trucks, then the police would show up and they’d get dragged away.”
The Enbrige pipeline protests have already shown most of these factors. Numerous organizations have spoken out against the project. The pipeline runs across such a large area, that it affects many people and is familiar to even more. Media attention has been world-wide and large groups show up to protests.
“Defend our climate, effects a lot of different organizations, we’re interested because climate change is such a huge issue. If the pipeline is built, it worsens climate change,” said Peter Louwe, Media and Public Relations Officer at Greenpeace.
The only factor remaining is whether people are willing to put their liberty at risk and potentially get arrested for civil disobedience to stop the project from happening, if the government doesn’t let the plan fall through. Protesters arrested at the Clayquot Sound blockades still have records, and many had to deal with their charges being upgraded while in jail after their civil disobedience arrests.
“Absolutely, Greenpeace will be involved in civil disobedience if the government goes against the wishes of the people and decides to build this pipeline… that’s what a number of our staff volunteers do and would do again,” Louwe said. “If the government tries to build, you will have Greenpeace and a lot of other First Nations and environmental groups willing to be arrested.”
“The blockade was very exciting,” Bates said. “Being around so many people who had the same level of caring for the forest and for the planet. Overall, it was very exciting and cutting-edge. We were rapidly becoming the biggest blockade ever in Canada. So it was very cool.”
The blockades of Clayoquot Sound did make an impact and helped to establish a change in logging practices in B.C. The area was even declared a designated biosphere reserve in 2000 by UNESCO. However, some communities were effected negatively by the changes. The forestry industry was stigmatized and families were dependent on jobs that were lost in the aftermath of the event.
“One of the outcomes was strengthening the divide between environmentalists in Tofino and loggers in Clayquot, and I think that the outcome could have been more effective in logging practices if we had started with just our neighbours next door,” Bates said. “If we could have gotten together on practices that are sustainable, then that would have been fantastic.”
