Premier John Horgan, and ministers Katrine Conroy, Mike Farnworth and Nelson-Creston MLA Brittny Anderson, I’m writing to express my objections to the well-documented police brutality towards the land defenders at Fairy Creek. Why aren’t you speaking out against this?
These courageous people trying to hold you to your word are being beaten, pepper sprayed, and violated by the RCMP.
This situation was caused by your government’s failure to keep your election promise to protect old growth trees.
You promised to implement the recommendations from your own Old Growth Panel “in totality.” If you had kept that promise we would now be protecting at-risk old growth forests like those at Fairy Creek and across the province. And there would be no police violence towards land defenders who have exhausted all other avenues for protecting these ancient trees.
Youth of your own party want to the BC NDP to be on the right side of history and to act boldly to address climate change. Why aren’t you listening to them? Their future is in your hands, and you are failing them miserably.
It’s time for you to commit to funding and implementing the commitments you made to protect the big old trees in B.C. People lost their homes to wildfires this summer, and we need what these trees provide: carbon sequestration, habitat, and climate stabilization to name only a few. Preserving them is an essential step towards building relationships with Indigenous people. These trees are treasures; ultimately their destruction is our destruction.
We are in an existential crisis and must move beyond business as usual. Please keep your promise and protect old growth trees in B.C.
Diana van Eyk
Winlaw