Plowing a steady course between Washington State and Alaska, the 10,000 ton oil tankers barge through BC’s inside passage. It seems nothing can stop their relentless progress, neither First Nation objection, rumoured moratoriums, nor environmental imprecations.
Even when the predicted disasters come so close, like the sinking of the Nathan E. Stewart in 2016, and near grounding of the Jake Shearer off the Goose Islands in Hecate Strait last year, those tugs just keep chugging along, marking time towards the inevitable Exxon Valdez-sized catastrophe to come.
Ingmar Lee is a long-time, BC-based environment defender. From the Nanaimo watershed and first-growth valley bottoms of Vancouver Island, to Cathedral Grove and the threatened Sandhill Crane nesting grounds of British Columbia’s mid-coast, Ingmar has advocated for and stood between an increasingly fragile ecosystem and its government enabled big business despoilers.
He is also the creator of the 10,000 Ton Tanker Public Group that has, through sheer tenacity, towed a reluctant media and the ENGO community into its effort to have the dangerous tanker transits along this ecologically fragile, and navigationally treacherous coast stopped for good. Ingmar will be appearing at 7:30 tonight at the Roxy Theatre on Gabriola Island to talk about the tankers passing the island every two weeks.
Ingmar Lee in the first half.
And; vilify, sanction, invade and repeat; it’s the imperial routine that seems never to tire. Time and again we’ve seen Western governments focus on one country or another, label its leadership “evil doers”, the government illegitimate, and put all “options on the table” to achieve said “regime’s” necessary changing. All for the welfare of the people there, of course. It’s a game that’s been played for a long time, ‘The Great Game’ as the late British Empire knew it; but a century after the end of the Great War that ended Britannia’s global rule, has the Game of Empire finally run its course?
Daniel Kovalik is a labor and human rights lawyer, essayist, and author of the critically-acclaimed books, ‘The Plot to Scapegoat Russia’, and ‘The Plot to Attack Iran.’ The third in his “plot to” trilogy, ‘The Plot to Control the World: How the US Spent Billions to Change the Outcome of Elections Around the World‘ is fresh off the Skyhorse publishing presses and couldn’t be more timely.
Dan Kovalik and correcting the prevailing myths of Western innocence in the second half.
And; Victoria-based activist and CFUV Radio broadcaster at-large, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things to be gotten up to in and around our town in the coming week. But first, Ingmar Lee and shedding light on the shadowy tanker traffic plying BC’s coast.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/