Insanity Reigns in Langford

This morning I read the news that Langford mayor Stew Young has decided to hold a second public hearing regarding plans for a huge development on the south side of Spaet mountain (aka South Skirt Mountain). The first public hearing was an absolute joke, and the Vancouver Island Community Forest Action Network (of which I am a director) immediately threatened legal action. Thanks to the hard work of VIC FAN spokesperson Zoe Blunt and residents of Langford, we won that small victory, but I have a feeling the next public hearing will also be a joke. It’ll still be chaired by Stew Young, who has no intention of being objective in this matter.
If you’re a regular reader to my blog, you’ll remember that Stew Young (who owns up to a dozen small business in the city, including many that profit from increased development) somehow managed to order up over 60 heavily armed RCMP officers to remove myself and 5 others from a tree-sit protest at the foot of Spaet last year. You may also remember that despite the 10 month long tree-sit and the groundswell of public outrage towards the Bear Mountain development on Spaet, the destruction continues.
Many of us found out about the Bear Mountain development far too late. Apparently there were plenty of public hearings, according to Stew Young, and our absence at those public hearings, as he likes to remind us, meant that we must have approved of the development.
When we did start going to the public meetings, we were told that we were liars, and that we were spreading misinformation about the Spencer Road interchange (the focus of the tree-sit) and Bear Mountain Resorts (the beneficiary of the interchange).
It seems much of controversy was surrounding the issue of whether or not these were sacred indigenous sites and sensitive ecosystems.
The local indigenous people we talked to convinced us that the mountain is sacred, and our on-the-ground studies confirmed that the mountain and surrounding land is part of the Garry Oak ecosystem, BC’s rarest and most biodiverse ecosystem.
The problem is, the indigenous people we talked to were not a part of the band council system, which are the only people who settler governments will respect as authority.
Indigenous politics is as tricky as anything, not my business, and too broad of a subject to make generalizations, but I think it’s safe to say that band councils, like any government body, can not always be trusted of be the voice of the people. I would not trust Stew Young, Gordon Campbell or Steven Harper to tell you where my ancestors are buried and what land my people hold sacred, so take it as you will.
How do we determine who is right in this case? It’s pretty much impossible, because we have no right to be digging in other people’s communities and cultures. The fact of the matter is, no settler has the right or ability to determine which indigenous person has the right to speak for the land and the sacred sites, and the democratic system that we have thrust on those communities is not effective at determining who should lead or speak for the people.
So what about sensitive ecosystems then?
The sad truth is that there is simply no sufficient protection for Garry Oak ecosystems. Luxury condo developers can continue to destroy the last remnants of a valuable ecosystem and damn thousands of species to extinction, and all we can do is try to reason with people like Stew Young and his friends on council to stop them. And it seems to me that regardless of how unwillinging to see reason Stew Young is, a mayor and council in his position has too much to gain from these projects to decide what is truly right here. Stew Young is worried about jobs in his community, and good for him, but that just means he’ll destroy sacred sites and endangered ecosystems to do so.
This is where Stew Young would call me a liar. His environmental consultants have told him that these projects are ‘Green’, ‘Sustainable’ and will make the land a better place. The problem here then is with companies like Golder and Associates and Enkon Environmental, who do these so-called Environmental Impact Assesments before each development. (One of these consultants lied to my face at a recent open house and told me there was no karst limestone on the south side of Spaet).
And to be fair to these consultants, who are just trying to protect their bottom line, like many people in these turbulant times, the problem really lies with the provincial and federal governments, who have never really understood the damage they are doing when they allow clearcutting, strip mining, and all the other industries that are destroying air quality, biodiversity, sacred sites, burial grounds, endangered species habitat, etc, etc. The standards for environmental protection set by the government are absolutely weak, and will not save this planet from environmental catastrophe.
We have sort of a catch-22 going on. If these environmental standards were actually in line with what we know about ecology, we’d see all the major industries collapse, and we’d be in serious crap, to say the least.
So the rationale here is, what’s the point of saving the planet from environmental catastrophe if it means our species will suffer so greatly? I can’t say I have the answer to that one. Most people don’t, and so we, as people who suppossedly choose these so-called government leaders, allow the destruction to happen in the name of jobs.
So Stew Young is just looking out for the people in his community, at the cost of the environment and the culture of the original inhabitants of the land.
He may be right when he says that much of what we say is not true, but only is you consider that a golf green is as valid a peice of ‘greenspace’ as a Garry Oak meadow. He may be right when you consider the current environmental protections are corrupted and worthless. I’m sure they’ve done all the studies required by law and came out smelling like roses. It just goes to show what a joke the law is in the country.
Very well. Stew Young, Langford council, the BC goverment, the Canadian government and the media lapdogs that spread this propaganda may never see reason when it comes to what they are doing to the land, to biodiversity, air quality, and the on-going genocide of indigenous people in these territories.
So, when environmental standards are worthless and we can’t seem to get the truth about sacred sites, what do we have left to stop a development that anyone with a passing interest in ecology or indigenous culture can see is a huge disaster?
Wait, we’re in the midst of a mortgage and housing crisis aren’t we?
If you live in Langford, you may have seen the huge hole in the ground that was supposed to be the Westhills development. This so-called ‘Green’ development is on indefinite hold because there doesn’t seem to be a condo market anymore. Another boondoggle development borders the proposed South Skirt Mountan development. Bear Mountain doesn’t seem to be selling any condos either, and rumours of bankruptcy have been getting louder and louder. A huge highrise development on the mountain also went belly-up recently. What makes these new developers (if they aren’t just the same old band of land-rapers and money changers) think that they can sell condos where no one else can?
At the same open house where I had to listen to the compromised crap from the environmental consultants, I asked one of the South Skirt Mountain developers why he would want to build in an area where there are already two big projects struggling to stay afloat, and he replied that the economic downturn would soon be over. He also told me that after the economy rebounds, it will crash again, but will rebound again. Since this is a 20 year project, he told me, in the end they will be able to realize their greedy money grabbing dreams and sell all their units.
On second thought, maybe we can’t reason with these people. They’re all completely insane.