Chaining protest blocks truck, has peaceful ending

Gulf Islands Driftwood
Tuesday, February 15, 2000

By Mike Levin

A four-hour standoff between people protesting clear-cut logging, police and Texada Land Corporation subcontractors ended last Wednesday afternoon when two protesters who had chained themselves to a logging truck agreed to stand down without official intervention.

Sally Sunshine and John LeDrue were part of a group of 38 protesters who stopped a logging truck, owned by Tim Dorman of Nanaimo, at the corner of Jones and Fulford-Ganges roads at 10:02 a.m. Wednesday. As driver Dave McCann sat wondering what to do, Sunshine had her wheelchair moved to the side of the loaded truck where it was chained to the hitch. LeDrue dove under the cab where he shackled himself around the truck’s front axle.

“This has nothing to do with me being disabled. I am doing this with my heart and soul. I have no other choice. This clear-cutting has to stop,” said Sunshine, who was left paraplegic following a cycling accident in 1998.

LeDrue insisted he was prepared to block the company’s operations “for as long as it takes for them to stop raping the land.”

As McCann left the vehicle, Dorman and several co-workers arrived. Protesters told them they had been advised by local lawyer John Davies that any attempt to remove the shackled protesters could be considered as assault.

“I told them the best course in a situation like that is to wait it out and talk it out. There are flash points to avoid,” Davies said Monday.

Salt Spring RCMP Constable Jamie Tretiak was the first police officer to arrive at 10:15 a.m.. Corporal Dave Voller arrived just before 11 a.m. but both decided against any physical action, hoping the protesters would make their point and go home.

As the drama dragged out the crowd swelled to about 60 people by midday, offering support to Sunshine and LeDrue between interviews with regional media.

Texada operations manager Brent Kapler watched from the fringe and admitted that he had been “expecting something like this.

“This may speed up some things like more covenants or land sales. But right now all we can do is continue to talk about these things because we have financial responsibilities.”

Just after 1 p.m. an elderly resident who lived on Jones Road was forced to walk from her home to the highway to meet a taxi that was to take her grocery shopping. At the intersection she tore a strip off anyone within hearing range for the blockage.

Some protesters felt the incident had “sapped the positive energy of the event” and the sooner it ended the better. Certainly the mood took a vindictive turn after that point.

One of Dorman’s employees claimed LeDrue was smoking pot and creating a safety hazard under the truck. McCann returned to his truck and blasted his air horn in an attempt to drown out a CBC broadcast of the protest being aired on a nearby portable radio, and Dorman spoke about vehicles that had been defaced by vandals at the next logging site beside the Holly Farm.

“Someone painted the windows of an excavator and a rock drill last week,” he said. “I’ve logged here before and nothing like this ever happened. Things have changed. Maybe I’ll have to start charging (the protesters) for lost wages.”

Voller and Tretiak stood off throughout and were visibly relieved when Sunshine unchained herself just before 2 p.m. and LeDrue followed 10 minutes later.

“We’ve made a very important point here, a very positive one. The support has been overwhelming,” said Sunshine.

In a final twist of irony, Dorman’s utility vehicle would not start once the crowd started drifting away. Protester Bart Terwiel was the first to step up with jumper cables.

No one would predict future episodes of civic disobedience. But with Texada refusing to slow down its rate of cutting and protest groups promising to escalate their efforts, there could be more blockades.

E-mail the writer: Mike Levin