Public Locked Out of Stoltmann Wilderness
9/1/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: PUBLIC LOCKED OUT OF STOLTMANN WILDERNESS!
Source: PATH & FAN
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: September 1, 1999
After nine arrests and twenty three consecutive days of protests,
International Forest Products have been successful in receiving a
court order which shuts out the public from logging operations in the
Stoltmann Wilderness. Protesters remain determined that this part of
the world's remaining 20% of ancient rainforest will be preserved.
Canada's oldest Douglas Fir trees are off-limits to the public after
a court order sought by Interfor. This prohibits the public from
entering within 500 meters of logging operations. The injunction is a
24 hour lock-out which disallows politicians, Ministry of Forests,
Ministry of the Environment, researchers, citizens and protesters
from witnessing Interfor's logging practices unless invited by the
Western Canadian Wilderness Committee. PATH protesters will remain
at the same location at Lava Creek. "Unknowingly, the judge even
locked himself out of the zone," says Barney Kern.
A lawyer from the Attorney General's Office in attendance at court
today sat silent as the public was locked out and the Western Canada
Wilderness Committee was given special priviledges. "This is one of
those unjust laws which we condemn and will break," states PATH's
spokesperson Barney Kern. "Why corporate interests override public
interests on public land is a question only Justice Randall Wong can
answer, this is not my kind of justice!"
The court has over stepped it's boundaries by allowing Interfor to
exclude the public while the logging company carves its way through
the southernmost grizzly bear habitat.
The protest against logging of old growth forest in the Stoltmann
Wilderness will continue. PATH spokesperson Barney Kern states, "We
want a moratorium on logging and road building in the Stoltmann
Wilderness until First Nations claims are settled and the national-
park proposal has gone through Parliament." This labour day weekend
numbers are expected to triple. For carpooling information and an
update on the Stoltmann Wilderness Campaign call (604)255-4145.
H-Q communications celebrates their fifth anniversary with a
Stoltmann Wilderness Party at the Peace Camp this Saturday, September
05th. More information and map found at www.hqcommunications.com.
Contact: Barney Kern (604) 838-3953
FAN Vancouver
(604) 739-4782
fanvancouver@hotmail.com
www.fanweb.org
2150 Maple Street, Vancouver, BC V6J 3T
PATH
(604) 255-4145
path@envirolink.org
www.enviroweb.org/PATH
PO Box 19596, Van, BC V5T 4E7