... On another forum Nog has posted up who owns part of IT; it may explain some things to people on this if he posts it up here as well.
First - I was not part of organizing this rally, I simply passed along information as I came across it.
Second: Since then I have become a little more involved. Currently there are a few folks investigating the potential of a larger (Island Wide) Rally in this regard. If this rolls, it is going to take quite a bit of effort to do right. Any and all that can or are willing to help let me know...
From the site Tidal Chaos mentioned:
When the timber company (Weyerhaeuser) was gifted the various tree farm lands (yes - gifted. Of course that was immediately preceded by Weyerhaeuser's generous "
donation" of a cool half million to the Provincial Liberal Party so perhaps it was sort of "
purchased"... in some form or another) the land transfer carried the caveat that Public Access could not be denied except in the event of fire, for safety reasons or to protect their equipment. That stipulation still stands. It has not been overturned, simply ignored by both timber companies & the government.
Island Timberlands (who took over from Weyerhaeuser) is gating huge expanses at a rather mad pace now, completely abandoning any thought of adhering to the access clause. Further they are blocking access to Parks, publicly stocked lakes, and alternate travel routes in and out of this Valley. The government has indicated no concern whatsoever in this regard, although it is very clear the intent (and written word) of the land transfers have been largely abandoned. A little looking at the structure of Island Timberlands might give an inkling as to why...
When Island Timberlands was first formed, there was a 25 % silent shareholder. It takes some pretty serious digging to determine just who that was (and still is today btw). Turns out that entity is none other than the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation - the investment firm of the BC government that manages public sector pension funds. Not too much of a leap to understand why then the government refuses to honor the wishes of it's voters in this matter and sides with the timber company repeatedly. Also rather interesting that IT still makes some rather generous contributions to the Liberal Party coffers from time to time...
Stay tuned folks, this thing is quite likely to get a whole lot bigger before the election gets rolling too far along...
Cheers,
Nog
