ADAM OLSEN -- Skeetchestn Indian Band Chief Ron Ignace considers the spraying of herbicide ‘an act of cultural genocide, because you are killing our foods and medicines’
There has been a lot of chatter in the public about the collapsing British Columbia forestry industry. In every community I visited this summer, forestry issues were central to the concerns of the people I met with. Many people had worked a full career in the forests, and they had very little positive to say about the state of the industry and the state of our ecosystems. There was harsh criticism of how this critical resource has been mismanaged over the years. So many people and communities have depended on logging and mill jobs that were once plentiful across the province. Year-by-year small family owned businesses were consolidated into fewer and larger multi-national corporate interests. Less care was paid for the people and towns in rural British Columbia as the CEO’s focus was on short-term profit and placating shareholders. Over the past two decades the BC Liberals oversaw this transfer of wealth, and at the same time were pounding the tabl...