The pictures of plants alongside the CN right-of-way hit me like a punch in the gut. Foliage caught in the slow, grotesque dance of death, each growing itself out of existence after being saturated with poison. Do plants feel pain? The latest findings of dendrologists prove that trees register assaults to their well being, and take elaborate measures to warn their fellows of impending danger. Are smaller plants any different?
Luanne Roth snapped those shots last fall. This paper published them. Luanne works for the T. Buck Suzuki Foundation. A longtime environmental campaigner who fought fish farms, oil tankers, and the like, she recalled that there had been some large dust-ups in the past over applications by the Ministry of Forests and the Canadian National Railway Corporation to use pesticides in our forests and along the railway respectively. She was sure that CN wasn’t supposed to slather poison all over the tracks. She was right.
In the early 1980s, the Ministry of Forests, operating on the flawed paradigm taught to them by professors trained in the forests of Europe, viewed the wild forests of BC as a garden instead of the immensely complex ecosystems they are. They assumed that old growth forests were crops, and that species like alder and cottonwood were analogous to garden weeds and had to be removed for the benefit of the soft woods prized by the forest companies.
Even back then, a few scientists were arguing there was compelling evidence that these so-called weed species were vital to the overall health of the forests, but these researchers got little truck from BC’s forest ministry, a victim of corporate capture, who, despite their mandate, were enslaved to the forest industry.
Deeming the removal of “weed species” desirable, the MOF determined that herbicides were the most efficient way to be rid of them. Consequently they applied for permits to use them. With the publishing of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962, the downsides of pesticides and their insidious effect on human health was becoming increasingly clear to the public, despite the efforts of its petrochemical proponents to muddy the waters. Two decades later, there was considerable public skepticism and fear over the use of pesticides.
When the MOF indicated they were eager to douse vast tracts of logged forest in the same manner that farmers dusted their crops, people like me paid $25 to the Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) for the opportunity to object, raise public concern and, hopefully, halt the spraying.
When the Federal Pest Management Institute (FPMI) served notice that they planned to use the fish-rich Skeena Islands for trials they hoped would lead to the registry of dozens of pesticides concocted by the likes of Dow and Monsanto that were then to be used nationally, I found myself at the forefront of a campaign against them, along with the Kitsumkalum Nation, and people from all walks of life in this community. We roused international attention to the issue and sent the FPMI packing.
The Skeena Protection Coalition grew out of that fight. It was under their aegis that I appeared before the EAB to appeal an application to spray the railway line between Prince Rupert and Terrace. The chairman warned me that my appeal would only be considered within the confines of the ingredients list on the pesticides’ labels.
Understanding this, I quoted extensively from a speech given by the Honourable Tom McMillan, then our Minister of the Environment — and the best one this country has ever had. Though the pesticides in question had gone through trials and been registered subsequently, the Honourable Tom pointed out that many of those trials were fraudulent and others were under a cloud.
The hearing was well attended by First Nations. The Gitxsan had representation from Gitanmaax, and Gitwangak, and the Tsimshian were there too. When I was done putting a fine point on things within the narrow confines of the hearing’s terms of reference, they stood up and eloquently and forcefully expressed their general antipathy toward CN, described the shabby way the corporation had treated Skeena’s salmon, then made it abundantly clear they would not be allowing pesticides on their lands.
We won the appeal. CN brass were ordered to meet with us. They did twice. Flowing from those meetings was the promise by the corporation that they would henceforth brush their right-of-way by hand and carefully do spot applications of poison to vanquish ballast weed, there being no other way to get rid of the stuff as they are forced to do by the feds.
From the late 1980s until last year, they have kept their word. So what changed? CN has applied for another spraying permit to be executed this fall. Luanne and Des Nobles at T.Buck Suzuki are on it. We need to be thankful they are. It remains to be seen if CN will act like good corporate citizens.