Site C dam protesters defy order to leave

FORT ST. JOHN — Members of a small but defiant group are pledging to keep protesting the Site C hydroelectric project in northeastern B.C. despite being ordered off the land.

They set up a camp on Dec. 31, when B.C. Hydro and Power Authority issued an eviction notice while pressing ahead with land clearing for the controversial $9-billion dam.

The Crown corporation gave protesters 24 hours to leave the area known as Rocky Mountain Fort on the south bank of the Peace River, a few kilometres south of Fort St. John.

It warned that B.C. Hydro personnel would remove all contents of the camp and deliver it to RCMP, but such action had not been taken by Monday afternoon.

Verena Hofmann, a Peace River Valley resident who was at the encampment over the weekend, said contractors appear ready to begin logging a three-kilometre region that is First Nations territory.

“We’ve just heard that equipment has started up. It looks like they are intending to keep on cutting,” she said by phone from Fort St. John.

“Treaty 8 First Nation people are holding their ground and are not moving from the site, so things are intensifying and changing quickly.”

Hofmann said demonstrators believe B.C. Hydro has no right to force them off the land in the midst of ongoing legal challenges involving Site C.

Several court cases raise major concerns about the potential impact of flooding from the creation of a new lake on the Peace River and the surrounding valley during construction of the dam.

Local people are trying to protect the land until court proceedings run their full course, Hofmann said.

She said the group has asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reassess the environmental approval granted for the project by the former Conservative government in conjunction with the B.C. government.

B.C. Hydro said a spokesman was not immediately available to comment.