The Justice for the Peace - Island Tour brings battling Peace River Valley farmers Ken and Arlene Boon to Sooke on Thursday (March 22) as the pair and their allies pushback against the B.C. government’s decision to green light the Site C hydroelectric dam.
The Boons will be joined by Jackie Larkin and Steve Gray, moderators of Victoria’s Site C Summit, which was held in late January. That gathering of more than 200 individuals from a broad range of groups concluded “the NDP’s cabinet action (to proceed with the project) was based on erroneous advice.”
The Sooke evening will take place downstairs at the Masonic Lodge, 6544 Throup Rd., from 7 to 9 p.m. Admission is by donation with proceeds going to the Peace Valley Environment Association.
The evening, one of six on the Rolling Justice Bus Vancouver Island Tour, is co-hosted by Awareness Film Night, the Sierra Club of B.C. and Transition Sooke.
The Boons are third-generation grain and hay farmers whose 162-hectare property was expropriated for a Site C-related highway realignment. With their home, livelihoods and the richly fertile Peace Valley at stake, the Boons have campaigned against the project for nearly a decade. They continue to rally against a Dec. 11, 2017 decision that was a shock to some NDP and Green Party supporters who expected the $11-billion project to be shelved following the November release of a B.C. Utilities Commission analysis packed with red flags. “Mainstream media and half the voters of BC refuse to see the obvious,” Ken Boon said. “But we’re hoping to change that. Overwhelming evidence makes it clear that the dam makes no sense financially, environmentally or ethically.”
The Rolling Justice Bus tour ends in Vancouver on March 27 for the start of a new chapter in a court challenge by the Treaty 8 First Nations alliance from the Peace River region. The group is arguing that the dam is a breach of treaty agreements.
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Further information:
Sierra Club BC Site C campaign page: https://sierraclub.bc.ca/campaigns/site-c
Peace River Environmental Association: http://www.peacevalley.ca
Site C Summit, Victoria: https://sitecsummit.ca