About a dozen people were at the Diana Krall Plaza on July 8 protesting RBC's investment in fossil fuels. They want Canadian banks to move away from those investments and look into renewable resources instead. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Jordan Davidson

shifting focus

Save Old Growth Nanaimo shifting protest focus away from highway blockades

Jul 12, 2022 | 6:44 PM

NANAIMO — The practice of sitting on and sometimes gluing themselves to area highways in the name of forest protection appears to be over for now.

Demonstrators from Save Old Growth in Nanaimo angered many motorists during repeated sit down protests on Hwy. 1 in early 2022. It was part of a wider movement across B.C. to force the provincial government into action.

Save Old Growth spokesperson Derek Menard said they’re adjusting tactics to try and speak more directly to government.

“Planting trees, public demonstrations that are still government facing, because that’s the only people who can do anything about this. Expecting a single company…to be able to shift the entire landscape of the market is kind of like expecting billionaires to stop world hunger through charity. It just doesn’t happen.”

Menard admitted the highway demonstrations were great for visibility and name recognition. The blockades on Vancouver Island, including a lengthy one across the Malahat Hwy., lead to sometimes aggressive and violent confrontations with stalled drivers.

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Members of Save Old Growth have also resorted to other tactics to get their message across, with Howard Breen hospitalized during a hunger strike in April.

Breen and a fellow demonstrator in the Lower Mainland were appealing to Forests Minister Katrine Conroy to meet with them and discuss ending old growth logging in B.C.

No meeting formally took place, although Conroy reached out to the strikers.

Breen was also a central figure at an April 7 protest at the RBC Brooks Landing branch where he and another demonstrator chained the doors to the branch shut and glued their hands to the handles.

While they don’t plan on blocking any major highways anytime soon, Save Old Growth aren’t going anywhere.

Menard said they won’t stop taking action until the B.C. government commits to ending old-growth logging.

“They’ve dragged their feet, they’ve done little deferrals here and there, they’ve used First Nations as a football. Everyone who is knowledgeable and has been consulted about this says if you want to use deferrals, use it as a tool to say, ‘hey let’s pause what we’re doing right now before moving on.’ You don’t go ask for permission for a pause, because what you’re doing is the problem.”

Demonstrators constructed a faux oil derrick outside of the Commercial St. RBC on Friday, July 8. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)

Concerned citizen Vic Brice was at a public demonstration from Extinction Rebellion in downtown Nanaimo on Friday, July 8. He said the road blockades done by Save Old Growth weren’t done lightly and weren’t about making friends.

“We were out there to basically make people look up and pay attention to what’s going on, because we are really short on time to save this. Making people angry we hope would make them think about what was going on, and maybe get a few people up off their butts to try and help. We’re open to ideas.”

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jordan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow