Five individuals involved in last winter’s Castle’s logging protest, in collaboration with the Castle-Crown Wilderness Coalition, are taking the Alberta Government to court pertaining to clear-cut logging in the Castle area.
The lawsuit, which has a number of reasons behind it, one being the fact that the Castle area is considered a core grizzly bear habitat, will be heard in the Court of Queen’s Bench in Calgary on Thursday November 8th, 2012, at 10 a.m.
A full day has been set aside for the case.
Mr. Clint Docken, of Docken and Company will represent the applicants.
“We decided to go ahead with the lawsuit after last winter’s protest,” said Gordon Peterson, President of Castle Crown Wilderness Coalition. “We were unsuccessful with the protest and that is when we realized we needed to go to court,” he said, adding that the lawsuit had been in the works since the protest.
People of all ages and backgrounds showed up to the three week long protests last winter, despite the fact that temperatures dipped to below 30 degrees during that time period.
“Even with the cold, people were willing to be out there every day to make sure the logging did not commence,” said Gordon.
Individuals organized the protest, not The Castle-Crown Wilderness Coalition.
“We don’t want to be out protesting. But people feel strongly about the issue, and people are willing to spend their time, money and effort to stop this,” said Gordon. “We need to show the government how much opposition there is to logging in Castle and to protect it.”
Spray Lake will be allowed to log this winter to finish of this year’s work. However, they were asked to defer years two and three, pending the outcomes of the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan. “It’s a step in the right direction,” said Petersen. “Unfortunately Spray Lake has plans to cut down three times as much lumber this year as they did last year.”
Petersen said they tried to do everything they could do before pursuing a lawsuit. “We wrote letters, made phone calls to the Minister’s office, made meetings and conducted opinion polls that showed three quarters of the people were opposed to clear cut logging at Castle,” he said, adding that his company has met with the MLA and has been to the Premier’s office. And then individuals organized a protest.
“What more could we have done?” he asked. “It has got to the point where it was a matter of democracy and accountability.”
