Development

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Development

First Nations elder Harriet Nahanee (1935 - 2007) was jailed in January 2007 for trying to protect Squamish Territory. See subchapter: Eagleridge Bluffs. Her already fragile health quickly deteriorated in prison and following her release, she suddenly became critically ill. A public vigil (right) was held for the Pacheedaht warrior at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver on 23 February 2007, but she passed away the next day.

"Ohkubo GO HOME," 23 July 2001.
Photo: Carie St. Pierre

Harriet Nahanee Vigil, 23 February 2007.
Photo: Rob Baxter

Adams Lake elder Irene Billy was arrested and photographed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on 23 July 2001 (left) for protesting against the expansion of Sun Peaks Resort near Kamloops, a mega ski development owned by the Japanese "Ohkubo" Company. Also arrested for their non violent protest against the destruction of their traditional hunting and gathering grounds were Charlie Willard, Henry Sauls and George Manuel Jr., son of the international indigenous rights leader George Manuel. The Secwepemc are regularly incarcerated on the contrieved grounds of not obeying injunction orders, the legal ploy of choice of big business - government to throttle peaceful protest. See chapter: Secwepemc.

Title and Rights Rally, Victoria, 23 June 2004.
Photo: Union of BC Indian Chiefs

By Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
Website: Rocking Raven

Haida artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas depicts the monster of gluttony that is stealing the resources of First Nations in BC (above). On 23 June 2004, indigenous peoples from across BC attended a rally in Victoria (left). They were protesting against the "sweeping amendments to the Forest Act and to the legal framework for forest practices, land use planning and land designations without meaningful consultation and accommodation of indigenous peoples" Title and Rights Alliance. The punitive new legislation against indigenous rights was enacted by Mike de Young, then still minister of forestry, to give corporations more power to manage the BC forests for their own benefit.

Logging companies continue to make illegal 3rd party deals and ignore the Supreme Court of Canada rulings on Aboriginal Title and Rights. On 31 January 2007, Western Forest Products (WFP) had the BC government remove over 28,000 hectares of land from three tree farm licences without the knowledge or consent of the Kwakiutl. This land is protected by the Kwakiutl's 1852 Douglas Treaty and to protest against the blatant infringement of their rights, on 12 February 2007 the Kwakiutl Band travelled to Victoria and demonstrated at the BC Legislature (right). See subchapter: Kwakiutl Protest. The unscrupulous WFP logged contested Kwakiutl land that had been under a 30 year moratorium, then manoeuvered a ten dollar giveaway lease to Polaris, an equally disreputable company. Polaris has engineered the removal an entire mountain in Kwakiutl Territory to export as industrial gravel to California. Not only has the valuable Cluxewe Watershed been deforested and degraded by corporate greed, but at risk is a precious salmon bearing river and the ancient Kwakiutl village site at its mouth.

Kwakiutl protest, 12 February 2007, Victoria.
Photo: Don Knight

Kwakiutl Chief Rupert Wilson, 2007.
Photo: Karen Wonders

Chief Rupert Wilson recalls how the Kwakiutl were squeezed out of the commercial fishing industry at Port Hardy. The same thing happened when the Kwakiutl began working in the logging industry: once the profit making was chanelled to the private companies and unions were organized, the native people were again excluded. This repressive scenario is replayed by the Norwegian dominated fish farm industry that has invaded and polluted Kwakiutl waters during the past two decades. Few of the companies make an effort to give jobs to the Kwakiutl. Chief Wilson does not hesitate to blame his community's terrible loss of economic self sufficiency on the racist policies of the governments of BC and Canada. He says "Just look around and you can see how everyone is getting rich on lands stolen from us and yet they even refuse to employ First Nations people."

Hereditary Kwakiutl Chief Rupert Wilson (left) attended the annual meeting of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs on 23 October 2007. There the distinguished and fluent speaker of Kwakwala stood up and accused the Dutch settler Mike de Jong (former BC minister of forestry, new minister of aboriginal relations) of "killing us with words." Chief Wilson further charged the minister with enacting policies that "rob us of our resources." He described the devious plot orchestrated by the logging industry that involves bankrolling certain natives who are then officially appointed as "coordinators" by the government and planted in band councils where they are given kickbacks for negotiating lucrative logging deals.

Chief Rupert Wilson has not seen any of the benefits of "development" improve the lives of the Kwakiutl people. Instead he notes how one resource industry after the other has invaded his territory and destroyed both the livelihood of the Kwakiutl and the resource itself. Within his own life time, he has witnessed how his father's hereditary family trapline along the coastline was taken away by the government as well as his Douglas Treaty protected right to fish.

Logs at Port Hardy, Kwakiutl Territory.
Photo: BC Ministry of Forestry

While "development" is a positive word to settlers, the opposite is true to First Nations. They have seen how development is the brutal means by which their people and cultures have been violated. Human rights abuse and resource theft are two examples; a third is heritage destruction. Lekwungen activist Cheryl Bryce (right) has led a battle to save a sacred aboriginal cave on a mountain known by the Coast Salish as SPAET from being destroyed by the greedy developers of Bear Mountain Resort.

SPAET cave before destruction in 2006.
Photo: Paul Griffith

Songhees activist Cheryl Bryce, 2006.
Photo: Don Knight

SPAET cave (left) is located 20 minutes from the BC Legislature in Victoria on Vancouver Island. Until 2001, much of SPAET was classified as a "Forest Lands Reserve." Murky machinations between the BC government and the logging company Western Forest Products resulted in SPAET falling into the grasp of unethical land speculators. As a result, the mountain has been sacrificed to a development consortium that is destroying both its ecology and Coast Salish archaeological heritage. The sacred cave close to the summit of SPAET was dynamited and blown up at Christmas 2006. See subchapter: SPAET.

SPAET was renamed "Skirt" in 1855 by the first colonial surveyor, an Irish settler who with staggering conceit took "Crown" possession of the land. SPAET includes the two watersheds of the once rich salmon bearing Millstream and Goldstream Rivers. Today both watersheds are under severe encroachment by urban sprawl; highways, housing tracts, strip malls and golf courses. Worst is the damage to the summit and slopes of SPAET where Bear Mountain Resort is ravaging the land for a huge 1,200 acre development that includes 40 floor condo towers. Two dynamite engineers are seen at one of the many blasting sites (right, red circle).

The SPAET devastation results from a dubious land transfer scheme between government and big business. See MLA John Horgan's condemnation: The Tree Farm Giveaway. The extent to which local Langford politicians have served the logging and development corporations, invading and wrecking SPAET, is documented by historian Ben Isitt in his revealing investigative report: Bear Mountain Interchange.

Bear Mountain Resort, August, 2007.
Photo: Karen Wonders (Click to enlarge)

SPAET Stand, 16 November 2006.
Photo: anon

On 16 November 2006, a First Nations stand took place at Bear Mountain Resort to protest against the desecration of SPAET cave. First Nations Leadership Council members included Chief Judith Sayers (above, with sunglasses). Local media filmed Songhees Cheryl Bryce speaking to a developer (above, balding with glasses) while a "red necked" RCMP officer monitored the concerned participants (right).

SPAET Stand, 16 November 2006.
Photo: anon

"Greed," Bear Mountain Resort, December 2007.
Photo: Flickr (Click to enlarge)

On the highest southern slopes of SPAET, the president of Bear Mountain Corporation (a former hockey player) is constructing an opulent fortress-like house for himself with grand views over the entire region, reminiscent of a European feudal king's mountain top castle (below).

Bear Mountain president's house, 2007.
Photo: Ingmar Lee

"Greed" reads the caption of the Flickr photo of the construction of Bear Mountain Resort taken in November 2007 (left). Blasting off a mountain top and obliterating native forests with rare and endangered groves of native arbutus trees and Garry oaks is a crude display of commercial power. Advertised as western Canada's largest "master planned community," the nature destroying development features wasteful golf courses, thousands of luxury homes and condos, and a hotel complex with over indulgent amenities.

Bear Mountain president's entry gates, 2007.
Photo: Karen Wonders

The hockey jock's McMansion is being built on blasted and terraced land (left). Signs saying "Keep Out" are posted at his triple lane high security entry gates (above). Overlooking the golfing wasteland, this monster house is the ultimate status symbol of crude material success. But opinions are changing with greater awareness of the environmental catastrophe facing Earth. Conspicuous cases of dubiously obtained wealth, especially at the expense of limited resources, are no longer held in high esteem. Also hockey stars are held accountable; a few have even made "Green partnerships" with the David Suzuki Foundation: News Release (7 December 2007).

Bear Mountain Resort ad, NYT, 2007.
Photo: Karen Wonders (red text added)

Bear Mountain Corporation perpetuates the abuse of indigenous people by trammeling their rightful jurisdiction over SPAET. It is yet another clandestine and unethical land grab that deprives the Coast Salish of their constitutionally protected treaty rights to continue living their lives as before colonization. Resorts are further evidence of how the ecological integrity of the land, so important to First Nations, is destroyed by rampant development, whether by resource extraction or urban sprawl. Bear Mountain Corporation is stripping SPAET of its traditional function as a hunting and gathering grounds by bulldozing down its forests for housing tracts and blasting off its summit for a recreation resort for wealthy American golfers. An example of the over indulgence and waste is the Quigg eight hectare antilevered winery for which native arbutus groves were destroyed (right).

Described as a "trophy location" and a "life style community," Bear Mountain Resort real estate is being sold internationally in double page colour newspaper ads (left). Grotesque condo towers with pretentious names like "The Highlander" are flogged to foreign buyers who have no knowledge of the controversies behind the nature destroying mega development: land grabs, aboriginal heritage destruction, ecological devastation and the misappropriation of public funds.

Quigg - Bear Mountain Resort ad, 2007.
Photo: Karen Wonders (red text added)

Cheryl Bryce, Nahanee Memorial, 1 March 2007.
Photo: G. T. Wm. Edwards

Songhees lands manager Cheryl Bryce accuses the BC government of deliberately failing to protect sacred aboriginal sites such as SPAET cave: "I do not see the issues at hand with the Heritage Conservation Act as being related to outdated legislation but as a perpetuation of colonialism. It is legislation that was not created by indigenous people nor was it meaningfully inclusive of indigenous people in the decision making process; as such, it does not adequately ensure political will to protect indigenous sites or rights" Heritage Conservation Act.

SPAET cave was destroyed during Christmas 2006. The following month - January 2007 - the First Nations elder and activist Harriet Nahanee was jailed for trying to save Eagleridge Bluffs from highway development. Tragically, soon after her release, Harriet fell ill and passed away 24 February 2007. A memorial held for Harriet in Vancouver was attended by Cheryl Bryce who spoke of the need to honour her legacy (left). See subchapter: Harriet Nahanee. On 2 March 2007 a protest against Bear Mountain Interchange was held on the Trans Canada Highway in Victoria. Dedicated to the memory of Harriet Nahanee, it was attended by both natives and non natives united against nature destruction: Press Release.

Bear Mountain Resort destruction, 2007.
Photo: Karen Wonders

Bear Mountain Resort's golfing "greens" will contaminate SPAET with pesticides and other chemicals. Already the nearby Highwest Waste Recycler Ltd. is Canada's largest emitter of the extremely toxic chemical dioxin. As water guzzlers and polluters, golf courses are the focus of protest worldwide. One 18 hole golf course consumes 5,000 cubic metres of water a day - enough for 2,000 families - says the Global Anti Golf Movement. First Nations in BC are leading the environmental and indigenous rights battle to protect and stewart water as a precious natural community resource instead of the "depletion, diversion and pollution" that is the hallmark of colonial mismanagement. Evidence of this dismal failure is the catastrophic decline of wild salmon runs.

Bear Mountain Corporation is blasting and leveling SPAET for unethical and unsustainable real estate development. Bulldozed housing tracts form deep ugly scars in the mountainside (left). Other areas have been ravaged for golf courses and laticed with thousands of metres of irrigation hosing with no regard for limited water resources. Songhees lands manager Cheryl Bryce informed the Resort developers of her concern over the ecological damage being done: Report on SPAET Water.

Aboriginal Heritage Destruction.
Photo: anon (red text added)

Chief Chris Tom and Paul Griffiths, 2006.
Photo: G. T. Wm. Edwards

The massive development of SPAET will harm the precious salmon run at Goldstream River, further killing off the Chum fishery that has been used by the Saanich Nation for countless generations. This destruction of living aboriginal heritage is matched by Bear Mountain Resort's brutal blowing up of rare archaeological features such as the sacred Coast Salish cave and guardian rocks. Tsartlip Chief Chris Tom discusses the crisis caused by the belligerent attitude of the Resort developers with speleologist Paul Griffiths (left). International criticism of BC's failure to protect the cave has been forthcoming: Crisis of SPAET Cave.

According to historian Ben Isitt, SPAET has been wrecked by a series of secretly negotiated deals and backroom political machinations that serve corporate interests: Bear Mountain Interchange.

Tsartlip Wendy (Paul) Edwards, 2007.
Photo: Karen Wonders

"Honour the Coast Salish," 29 June 2007.
Photo: Karen Wonders (red text added)

SPAET degraded by Langford subdivisions and urban sprawl, 2007.
Photo: anon

Bear diorama, Royal BC Museum.
Photo: Karen Wonders

Every year in BC, over one thousand black bears are officially killed as "nuisance" animals. Bears are increasingly deprived of their homes by clearcut logging, mining and urban sprawl. Bear Mountain Resort has destroyed a key habitat for large animals such as bears and cougars. Soon tourists visiting BC will be restricted to museums to see how these animals live in the wild (above). Also vanishing from the landscape are the culturally modified trees (CMTs), important marks of indigenous use and occupation. A number of these valuable aboriginal heritage trees will be cut down and destroyed by the construction of Bear Mountain Interchange (right).

CMT, Bear Mountain Interchange, 2007.
Photo: Ingmar Lee

"Langford," painting by Emily Carr, 1939.
Art Gallery of Alberta

Artist Emily Carr is world renowned for her scenes which celebrate BC wilderness forests and aboriginal culture. One of her favourite sketching places close to her home in Victoria was Goldstream Park, where a remnant old growth rainforest survived. She also painted the nearby forests at Langford, where she saw how the ancient trees were ruthlessly felled for agricultural land (left). Little is left in Langford of the magnificent native forests and it seems criminal not to protect the surviving trees. But nature protection measures are given no respect by Langford's gung ho developers - politicians, a scenario repeated in municipalities across BC. The situation has become so urgent that some are calling for a government imposed moratorium on all land sales and development in BC.

"Save Sacred Salish Sites," 2 March 2006.
Photo: Don Knight

Until 2001, much of SPAET was a mature Douglas fir forest, part of a "Green Belt" protected by the Forest Land Reserve. Langford deviously circumvented the long term Goldstream and Millstream Watershed protection plans desired by a majority of residents in the region as well as community initiatives to restrict growth according to environmental factors. Instead, with no regard to limited water resouces, Langford promotes a population growth of 10 to 14,000 at the subdivision it calls "Bear Mountain" and 5 to 7,000 at the adjacent subdivision it calls "Skirt Mountain."

Shocked by the plague of nature destruction and real estate development around Victoria, there has been an outpouring of support for SPAET by non natives. See subchapter: SPAET. They see in the dishonest behaviour of the Langford politicians who serve the greedy developers a deeply rooted contempt for the indigenous peoples that the government's sanctimonious rhetoric about a "new relationship" fails to whitewash. Support groups include: Parents and Children for the Earth, Coalition to Protect Goldstream Watershed, Spaet Mountain Action Coalition; Vancouver Island Community Forest Action Network and Friends of Spencer Pond. The Bear Mountain Treesit is a resistance camp set up in the path of the planned highway interchange (right).

One protester at the 2 March 2006 rally against the Bear Mountain Interchange carried the sign "Save Sacred Salish Sites" (left). Urban sprawl not only destroys aboriginal heritage, it reduces the land base available to First Nations in their pursuit of a just treaty resolution with BC. Much urban sprawl - like Bear Mountain Resort - occurs on contested indigenous land. In addition to being unethical, the transformation of SPAET to urban subdivisions burdens the existing infrastructures, not least adding to region's annual pumping of some 34 billion litres of raw sewage into the sea.

Bear Mountain treesit, 2007.
Photo: Chris Cook