To the Editor,
Re: Arrests made at Colliery dam protest, Sept. 17.
As president of Dams Direct Action Group, I want to commend all those citizens who stood up against the destruction of approximately 70 trees in Colliery Dam Park.
The community is well aware that by coercing city council into implementing an expensive and needless project, all at city taxpayers’ expense, the provincial government’s real goal was to revenge itself on Nanaimo for proving that the dams would not collapse if there was a serious earthquake.
It also concerns me that the RCMP arrested peaceful demonstrators without a court order, instead relying on the Trespass Act. I hope that the courts will summarily dismiss these charges forthwith.
As I have no expectation that the city will reverse the many bylaw tickets handed out, my organization is offering to pay them upon request.
We note that there is even more damage to the park being scheduled for next year. The Dams Direct Action Group will continue to organize civil disobedience as needed.
Dave CuttsDams Direct Action Group
To the Editor,
Re: Arrests made at Colliery dam protest, Sept. 17.
We fully support the protesters and understand their frustration with the process.
The Dam Safety Branch first said that the dams had to come out because a catastrophic earthquake would cause them to fail and 150 people would die. The City of Nanaimo paid for a professional study that proved the dams were built much more safely than the branch claimed. Now the branch claims that ‘Noah’s Flood’ will cause the dams to collapse yet limited data and no hydrology studies have ever been done. Bureaucrats are given legislative authority to make decisions based on limited data and their word is final?
Perhaps the Dam Safety Branch need to be looking at more important problems like why the Mount Polley dam failed without a catastrophic earthquake or flood and how safe our other mining dams are.
Dave Seccombe and Karen MullenLadysmith