An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.
- Martin Luther King
The B.C. Court of Appeal recently dismissed an argument by 82 year-old environmentalist, Betty Krawczyk, that her 10-month jail sentence for refusing to abandon the protest at Eagleridge Bluffs was unduly harsh.
Ironically, the appeal was heard after Betty had served seven months of the sentence and been released.
Krawczyk was arrested three times between May 25 and June 27, 2006 inside an area of highway construction at Eagleridge Bluffs protesters had been ordered out of by a B.C. Supreme Court injunction. In sentencing her to 10 months in jail, the sentencing judge noted Krawczyk had deliberately disobeyed that order to court publicity for her cause.
Eagleridge Bluffs was a unique ecosystem home for migrating birds and many environmentally rare and endangered plants and animals. The BC Liberal government decided to blow up the Bluffs so the Sea to Sky Highway could bypass the congestion at Horseshoe Bay. This would cut a few minutes off the trip to Whistler, the destination of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, a promise the government made in its game-winning proposal to the IOC.
Despite alternatives that were not only environmentally friendly but cost effective, and in the face of international outrage, the government stuck to its guns, or more aptly its explosives.
Twenty-four protestors were eventually arrested. All received $1000 fines with additional fines from $250 to $400. Three were jailed for criminal contempt of court including Betty and Harriet Nahanee, a 71 year-old Native elder.
Harriet served nine days of a 14-day sentence. A week after her release she was hospitalized with pneumonia at which time doctors discovered she had lung cancer. She died of pneumonia and complications at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver on February 24, just one month after her original sentencing.
Harriet had been weak from the flu and asthma in January, and it was widely suspected that her condition worsened during her incarceration. An independent public inquiry into her death was called for in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia , however Solicitor-General John Les, while expressing "regret", denied any government responsibility and refused opposition requests for an inquiry.
Harriet had been weak from the flu and asthma in January, and it was widely suspected that her condition worsened during her incarceration. An independent public inquiry into her death was called for in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia , however Solicitor-General John Les, while expressing "regret", denied any government responsibility and refused opposition requests for an inquiry.
Eagleridge Bluffs was a rare and special place not only to me but to hundreds of others. The Liberal provincial government’s intransigence to consider other options was not only frustrating but incomprehensible. Only when it was suggested that the contractor that would carry out the project had donated ten of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions did it begin to make sense. A sickening sense.
Upstanding citizens were so outraged they took it upon themselves to violate a court injunction to abandon the blockade. They were arrested and forcibly removed.
When confronted by an immoral government that uses just laws for unjust causes, what options does a citizen of conscience have?
This is the question I pose in my novel Eagleridge Bluffs. Challenged with this reality, a law-abiding citizen takes the next step and becomes involved in eco-terrorism.
One has to wonder how many citizens that loved the Bluffs, citizens that were frustrated by an immoral government, and paralyzed by the legal system, considered taking the same step that my fictional heroine took?
Gandhi said, ‘In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.’
Five years later the injustice of Eagleridge Bluffs still resonates.
Eagleridge Bluffs, the novel is available at www.devinedestinies.com
Royalties are being donated from the sale of Eagleridge Bluffs to The Friends of Cypress Provincial Park Society to support the ongoing work in the preservation of the park's natural environment, its special historical and cultural features; and through education, an understanding and appreciation of the park's natural features. For more information about The Friends of Cypress Provincial Park Society and their work visit http://www.cypresspark.bc.ca
Thank you for writing this. One small clarification: two penalties existed for those not going to jail. 1) each arrestee paid $1,000 to cover Kiewit's legal costs, even though it was clear in their contract with the government already assigned $250,000 in up front costs to cover any court costs that might accrue should citizens defy a court order (there was also a mechanism in place to cover costs over and above the $250,000) and 2) arrestees had an option of paying anywhere from $250 to $5,000 to the court as payment for damaging its reputation, or could work off the money in volunteer hours (25 hrs up to 250 hours). As you might guess, the 250 hour penalty was beyond any penalty allowed under the criminal code for any conviction. Injunctions which remove the constitutional rights of protesters are supposed to be "extraordinary remedy" used in extraordinary situations. It still amazes me the way judges are abusing their significant powers to protect a corporations right to earn money.
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