Action — Rebecca Hunter went to Fairy Creek to help in the kitchen. The first morning there, RCMP raided the camp, arrested first only people of color (skipping over the young white women in the peaceful protest line) and wrecked havoc at the camp, taking pictures of their post-wrecking and lying to the public saying that the disarray was caused by the land defenders themselves, being the reason they needed to arrest them.
She saw all of this. Now what?
That’s what we’re talking about in this two-part episode of Wild and Precious Conversations.
It’s Becca’s story and I stand with her - it takes great courage to tell such a personal story and to do so without prejudice. Both of us have witnessed extraordinary cruelty and immature behaviour by people in authoritative leadership positions this year and we are both trying to make sense of it.
Neither of us is super mainstream :) We homeschooled our kids together in this lovely mountain town we live in, known for its progressive politics.
At the same time, we’re both basically tea drinking, slightly salty, middle aged women who care deeply about the planet we’re leaving to our children and also would rather just get on with our lives — preferably, I think, with more adults in the room (I guess that is my interpretation. Not 100% sure if Becca agrees.)
This conversation is her sharing, in full, what she saw at Fairy Creek this summer. It’s violent, with blatant racism and compromised behaviour on the part of the RCMP working there.
Because British Colombians have paid $20 million so far to help Teal Jones, the logging company trying to extract old growth logs from Fairy Creek and Coastal GasLink, because over $1 million of the RCMPs pension is tied up in Teal Jones, and because 92% of British Colombians are apparently against this form of logging, we are confused by both the behaviour of the RCMP officers she saw at Fairy Creek (unfortunately, they don’t all wear their badges when they are doing this sort of thing, so we have to call out the entire profession instead of the officers who did these things.)
Have a listen and do let us know your thoughts.
Notes:
Video of teen in tripod — Video mentioned in podcast of the teen tumbling 15 feet to the earth in a sleeping bag and then roughly arrested with no check that he’s in good health.
Poll showing 90% of British Columbias support protecting old growth
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Onward. As we heal the otherness in us, in our communities, in our world.
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Rebecca Hunter Talks About What She Saw at Fairy Creek.