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Clayoquot & Dissent
A STRANGE CUCKING SOUND INTERRUPTS a telephone conversation with UBC English professor Ron Hatch on a Monday at 5:30 p.m. There's nothing wrong with the line. "Oh, that's my electronic monitoring device," he explains. "It's checking to see if I'm at home."
Hatch was arrested for protesting clear-cut logging at Clayoquot on August 9, 1993, along with cultural ecologist Los Maingon, SFU Education professor Maurice Gibbons and approximately 300 others. He pleaded not guilty to criminal contempt and was sentenced to 21 days (20 under electronic surveillance), 25 community hours and probation for the rest of the year.
"On the day of my sentencing, I tried to be calm and logical. But I was really angry. We were never allowed to justify our actions. Given the sort of charge it is, the judges believe it's possible to infer your motives. At the time of our trial in Victoria, we flew over environmental planner Brent Ingram from UBC to speak about old growth forests. He's an internationally recognized expert but the judge decided he couldn't offer evidence. The only time we were allowed to say anything of substance was at our sentencing. Of course the value of putting ourselves through the meatgrinder, instead of pleading guilty, is we're now in a position to launch an appeal"
Hatch, Gibbons, Ingram, Maingon and Tzeporah Berman are also in a position to launch a collection of essays, Clayoquot & Dissent (Ronsdale $7.95), with artwork by Margot Gibbons. Profits will go to environmental organizations. Hatch will contribute the testimony he wasn't permitted to deliver in court. Meanwhile Hatch has preferred to wear shorts this summer, so everyone can see his electronic monitoring device.
"The whole experience has deepened the sense of what we have to fight against," says Hatch. "We discovered during the trials that the RCMP had been giving information to Macmillan Bloedel on a daily basis. The police, wittingly or unwittingly, were aligning themselves with MB. At the same time, you begin to realize how much the court system is slanted towards the logging companies. We soon found ourselves fighting the courts instead of fighting MB. The courts took the heat off Macmillan Bloedel and the province paid for the process. By the time the sentencing was over, the process didn't satisfy anybody except Macmillan Bloedel. The judges were unhappy, the protestors were unhappy. and the general public was unhappy. The courts failed to understand that civil disobedience could be done, as Martin Luther King said, 'lovingly', with respect for the law one is breaking."
0-921870-29-9
[BCBW 1994] "Environment" "Law"
Hatch was arrested for protesting clear-cut logging at Clayoquot on August 9, 1993, along with cultural ecologist Los Maingon, SFU Education professor Maurice Gibbons and approximately 300 others. He pleaded not guilty to criminal contempt and was sentenced to 21 days (20 under electronic surveillance), 25 community hours and probation for the rest of the year.
"On the day of my sentencing, I tried to be calm and logical. But I was really angry. We were never allowed to justify our actions. Given the sort of charge it is, the judges believe it's possible to infer your motives. At the time of our trial in Victoria, we flew over environmental planner Brent Ingram from UBC to speak about old growth forests. He's an internationally recognized expert but the judge decided he couldn't offer evidence. The only time we were allowed to say anything of substance was at our sentencing. Of course the value of putting ourselves through the meatgrinder, instead of pleading guilty, is we're now in a position to launch an appeal"
Hatch, Gibbons, Ingram, Maingon and Tzeporah Berman are also in a position to launch a collection of essays, Clayoquot & Dissent (Ronsdale $7.95), with artwork by Margot Gibbons. Profits will go to environmental organizations. Hatch will contribute the testimony he wasn't permitted to deliver in court. Meanwhile Hatch has preferred to wear shorts this summer, so everyone can see his electronic monitoring device.
"The whole experience has deepened the sense of what we have to fight against," says Hatch. "We discovered during the trials that the RCMP had been giving information to Macmillan Bloedel on a daily basis. The police, wittingly or unwittingly, were aligning themselves with MB. At the same time, you begin to realize how much the court system is slanted towards the logging companies. We soon found ourselves fighting the courts instead of fighting MB. The courts took the heat off Macmillan Bloedel and the province paid for the process. By the time the sentencing was over, the process didn't satisfy anybody except Macmillan Bloedel. The judges were unhappy, the protestors were unhappy. and the general public was unhappy. The courts failed to understand that civil disobedience could be done, as Martin Luther King said, 'lovingly', with respect for the law one is breaking."
0-921870-29-9
[BCBW 1994] "Environment" "Law"
Submitted on December 15, 2005 in By David.
