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TWO GREENPEACE PROTESTERS ARRESTED AT CANADIAN EMBASSY IN NATIONS CAPITAL
WASHINGTON, D.C. - 15 May 1997
Two Greenpeace activists were arrested today and charged with misdemeanor trespassing for scaling the 50 foot columns in front of the Canadian Embassy and deploying banners, that read "Canada's Clearcut Rainforest, We Won't Buy It," protesting the destruction of the most important temperate rainforest region left in North America - British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest. The two climbers, J. Weis 26 of Austin, TX and Pat Keyes 23 of Dallas, TX are being held at the third district police headquarters.
"They might have pulled us off of the pillars, but they are not going to stop us from protecting this rainforest and informing U.S. consumers to B.C's destructive practices." said Marc Evans, a U.S. Forest Campaigner for Greenpeace. "Concerned citizens were protesting in LA yesterday and today in Boston and Seattle to bring greater awareness to the plight of the rainforest." Currently B.C. is exporting approximately 50% of their old-growth products to the U.S.
In British Columbia this week, the Greenpeace vessel MV Moby Dick sailed into the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest to begin a summer of blockades against logging and road building planned for the B.C. coast's pristine watersheds. The announcement of this action and the release of the Greenpeace report detailing the mismanagement of B.C.'s rainforests "Broken Promises," prompted B.C. Premier Glen Clark to declare Greenpeace "Enemies of B.C." When seventy prominent Canadian environmental groups and individuals stood by Greenpeace in full-page ads and a press conference, stating that they too had concerns about the management of B.C.'s forests, the Premier sweepingly denounced them as well.
In 1993, over one thousand people were arrested in efforts to protect Vancouver Island's Clayoquot Sound, the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. During the controversy, the Provincial Government of B.C. and the Canadian Federal Government swore to the world that B.C would "stop the chop" and "dramatically change the way B.C.'s forests are managed." Yet of the original 353 large rainforest valleys that once existed in B.C., only 69 coastal valleys are still intact. Half of the remaining valleys on the central coast are scheduled to be roaded or clearcut in the next five years even though the B.C. Ministry of the Environment has reported that one in ten plants and animals in the province is threatened or "at risk" of extinction, with logging being one of the leading cause, the rate of cut in B.C. has declined by less than 1% in the past 5 years.
Greenpeace is calling for a moratorium on logging or road building in the remaining large (over 10,000 acre) watersheds in the temperate rainforest, an end to clearcutting in the rainforest. Greenpeace also calls on Canada to enforce its responsibility as a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity (by implementing endangered species legislation that covers all of its territory), and calls on the U.S. to eliminate clearcut rainforest products from its own marketplace.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Marc Evans, Greenpeace Forest Campaigner tel: +1 202 531 5841
beeper: +1 202 801-6467
Terri Johnson, Greenpeace Press Officer tel: +1 202 319 2542