Remembering Pierre and Harriet

Last week the BC environmental movement lost two of its foot soldiers in the shape of Harriet Nahanee and Pierre Rovtar.

Harriet was instrumental in the Eagle Ridge bluffs protest and at 71 had been sent to prison for 14 days for simply not apologising to the construction company at Eagle Ridge Bluffs. Along with fellow protestor Betty Krawzyk, Harriet took a stand on the bluffs overlooking West Vancouver, like Betty she was arrested for breaking the will of a judge who simply issued a piece of paper.

It is a statement of our times to see pictures of Harriet on the blockade in one hand a piece of paper originally written 200 years back; the other hand in hand with a West Van RCMP officer. Our court system refuses to acknowledge such an old document, even if it was written in the King's hand. Today a court order can overrule the word of a long dead king with a simple signature.

Betty and Harriet as great grandmothers have memory of the days when Madam Justice Brown would have never had the opportunity to sit in her current position. Justice Brown is in her position today because women of the past suffered, got arrested and sometimes died to fight for the right to be recognised. Today a construction company has more right to make a buck than people have the right to protest said companies immoral activities.

Make no mistake, Harriet Nahanee died in her attempt to save Eagle Ridge Bluffs, she maybe the first casualty of a new war in the woods.

I knew Pierre Rovtar from his time running for the Green Party in the BC election of 2005. Unlike many GP candidates Pierre did not dissapear from the radar after the election. In fact Pierre raised his profile significantly by raising a Surrey based fight to stop the BC Liberals Gateway Plan; ironically set in motion by Kevin Falcon, who Pierre ran against in 2005.

Pierre's stand against the Gateway Plan would certainly not have been an easy one. The vast majority of residents south of the Port Mann were originally in favour of the plan. However, thanks to Pierre [and others] hard work and dedication to the realities of increased traffic, Surrey, Langley, Cloverdale residents and their local media are now questioning the logic of the Gateway Plan; particularly in light of the Liberals green speech of several weeks back.

As far as I know Pierre Rovtar and Harriet Nahanee never met, yet their commonality is obvious. From each end of the freeway expansion these two warriors fought the fight of so-called "progress". We shall remember them both as such.