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A poet’s account of protesting a BC oil pipeline
British Columbia poet Danika Dinsmore feels passionately about doing something to halt our current climate crisis. That’s why she joined a group of protesters on Burnaby Mountain, British Columbia in May 2018 to take a stand against expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline. The Canadian government recently acknowledged the pipeline would be disastrous for the southern resident pod of orcas in the Salish Sea, and yet is continuing to push it forward.
In “House Arrest,” an essay online at Cascadia Magazine, Dinsmore chronicles the deep bonds she and her fellow protesters built during in their arrest and sentencing. It’s an inspiring call to action for those who can no longer stand by as the planet is sacrificed to corporate greed.
“I am no hero. My fellow protestors and I agree: our courage is not extraordinary. We were simply so deep in our despair we were overcome with the need to do something. . . . Crossing the injunction line was the easiest thing to do at the time, because not crossing, not acting, not demanding was more frightening.”
Set aside some time this week to read this powerful and important essay about taking a stand for future generations.
And if you appreciate great writing like this, please consider becoming a supporting reader of Cascadia Magazine at our donate page.
And to our current supporting readers, we say thank you for making publication of essays like this possible.
Can Jay Inslee run for US president and & run WA state?
Washington governor Jay Inslee recently announced he’s running for US president, with a focus on climate change, and the Seattle Times looks at whether Inslee can still do the job as governor and run a presidential campaign. He did succeed in getting his bill in the WA Senate passed that would phase out use of coal in producing Washington’s electricity. There’s a detailed profile of Inslee in the New Yorker, although his dig at young members of Congress supporting a Green New Deal smacks of elitism.
Connections between BC’s Site C dam & SNC-Lavalin scandal
Wendy Holm, writing for the Georgia Straight, looks at the connection between British Columbia’s controversial Site C dam project and the growing scandal in the Canadian government over bribery and the corporation SNC-Lavalin. Meanwhile, salmon activist Alexandra Morton calls out the Canadian government for its failures to protect wild salmon from fish farm diseases in BC. And at the Tyee, Andrew Nikiforuk is critical of the Canadian government’s blind eye to viruses from fish farms.
New bill in WA would stop housing of mentally ill in jails
Four years after a Washington state court ruled against keeping people with serious mental illness in the state’s jails, a bill is in the legislature that would stop the practice. In related news, there are several bills in the WA legislature to increase mental health education and resources in public schools.
Mapping British Columbia’s kelp forests
CBC has a cool story about a researcher who’s discovered maps of kelp beds off the coast of British Columbia dating from the early 20th century, and is using them to track losses of these ecologically diverse “underwater rain forests.”
Oregon’s master guitar maker
OPB has an amazing, lovely video profile of Portland’s Jeffrey Elliott, who is renowned as one of the world’s most talented luthiers (hand-made guitar makers) and has been making classical, jazz, and folk guitars for more than fifty years.
Poetry by Abi Pollokoff
Seattle Review of Books has a poem online, “if the mirror,” by Seattle’s Abi Pollokoff:
“in its gilded frame
beheld the body’s greeneries something
lovely:
a face of leisure
a leaning in”
Read the full poem here.
That’s today’s selection of news and arts from across the Pacific Northwest. Here’s wishing your day tomorrow is meaningful and full of joy. –Andrew Engelson