Saturday, July 27, 2024

News, analysis and commentary by UBC Journalism students

On 31/1/22, 6 protestors blocked the Trans Canada Highway for nearly an hour at two separate locations. On 21/3/22 they plan to do it again, only this time they’re hoping to have 200 people blocking off over 20 points on the highway. “This is a post-green movement, we’re not trying to save trees, we’re trying to prevent societal collapse,” says Ian Webber, Pictured Above

Environmentalists ‘stop traffic’ strategy to protect old growth

By JJ Mazzucotelli , in City , on February 22, 2022

Drivers on the Trans Canada highway were blocked along the Iron Workers bridge and just before the BC Ferry Terminal as 3 activists superglued their hands to the asphalt. Drivers expressed a range of emotions from frustration to sympathy. Some wondered why the police were taking so long to clear protestors.

The Save Old Growth (SOG) group formed in late November. Their plan is to spend February hosting talks around the city of Vancouver with the hopes of recruiting new members.

“We want more people in prison and less people on the streets… we want people to hate us and demand that we get removed… we want to overwhelm them,” said Zain Haiq, a founding member of the group.

Members say this is a six month plan. They want to push the B.C. government to end old growth logging by July. The SOG activists want the B.C. premier John Horgan to stand by his campaign promise to implement all 14 recommendations of the independent old-growth panel report, including immediate logging deferrals in areas at high risk.

On this day, the traffic was backed up for a hours even after protesters were cleared.

Save Old Growth activists were able to block traffic for so long was because of their superglue strategy. Police initially attempted to peel the activists’ hands-off the highway, but eventually had to call the fire department to bring acetone to break down the glue. All 6 of the environmentalists were charged with criminal mischief. Court dates have yet to be set.