O.R.C.

On the southern tip of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada, lies both the small town of Langford and a hotbed of eco-rebellion against mindless development.

The issue is Bear Mountain, a diverse and wild eco-system that holds particular spiritual importance for the First Nations peoples who still live in the area. The forces of development would like to see it cut, stripped and paved for the sake of condos and golf-courses.

On one side are the town’s mayor, Stew Young, the RCMP [the Mounties] and LGB9 Development Corp. Stew Young, famous for bending over backwards to pave the way for big-box stores and condos to invade his town, has resorted to such tactics as threatening to sue protestors for the cost of their own violent eviction. He has also coordinated the direct suspension of free speech, by fining a local resident for posting protest signs on their own property.

On the other side are a diverse collection of Earth First!ers, First Nations peoples, hippies and concerned regular folk. They’ve operated a protest camp, erected a treesit in the path of the highway development and held numerous rallies. One protester even purchased the sub-surface mining rights to the development area—the legal ramifications of that are still in debate.

On April 10th, protestors occupied the area where blasting was to happen, costing the development project thousands of dollars despite only delaying the blasting for an hour and a half. One protestor was arrested and was released immediately without charges.

Full information (including addresses and phone numbers) of some of the offending companies and individuals can be found at the boycott site.

In other news, there is a remarkably unbalanced bit in the Langford, British Columbia wikipedia entry: “Stuart Young, very friendly, accountable mayor who transformed the dog-patch into the shining example of pro-development big-box paradise unparalleled on Vancouver Island. The man who really pushed for the great Bear Mountain development to be allowed all permits possible.”