By David F. Rooney
A campaign to try and protect the Great Bear Rainforest on BC’s coast is coming to town on April 15 in hopes of mustering opposition to the planned Enbridge oil pipeline from Alberta to Kitimat.
Organizer Megan Jamison believes the productions that are to be shown at the Royal Canadian Legion on April 15 should both intrigue and outrage attendees. Oil in Eden, Cetaceans of the Great Bear Rainforest, Stand Up for The Great Bear Rainforest and SpOIL on The Line come at the issue from different perspectives.
Oil in Eden is a 16-minute documentary produced by Damien Gillis for Pacific Wild about the struggle to stop the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline from the Tar Sands, and the associated oil supertankers that could gravely threaten the BC coast.
Cetaceans of the Great Bear Rainforest is a clever animation about the danger posed to whales, dolphins and other cetaceans as well as squid and other creatures by the noise generated by the propellers that drive supertankers.
Stand Up for The Great Bear Rainforest was produced by Squamish resident Norm Hann. It chronicles his 385km stand up paddleboard expedition through Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest from the Haisla Village near Kitimat to the Heiltsuk village of Bella Bella. With stops in Hartley Bay, Klemtu and as far west as the Moore Islands, the expedition helped bring awareness to the environmental threat the proposed Enbridge oil pipeline and tanker traffic could have on the Great Bear Rainforest, its people and wildlife.
SpOIL on The Line is a collaboration between EP FIlms and the International League of Conservation Photographers to create a documentary that tells the story of the threats facing the Great Bear Rainforest and the efforts of native communities and conservations groups to protect this wild landscape.
Jamison herself works part of each year at a lodge on Knight Inlet on the coast of the mainland and regards the area as magical.
“I just wish more Canadians would go there,” she said. “It’s hard to explain what it’s like to be in a boat surrounded by 800 dolphins.”
Well, Revelstokians interested in environmental protection will have an opportunity to enjoy that experience second hand when Jamison and Amy Flexman present their film show in support of the Great Bear Rainforest at the Royal Canadian Legion on April 15 at 7 pm. Tickets are $5 for children under 19 and seniors. All others are $10. All proceeds will go to Pacific Wild (www.pacificwild.org), and their work to conserve the wilderness of the Great Bear Rainforest. Please click here to view the poster
