Pro-environment Advocate Freed
Posted 29th January 2001
By Neville Judd

VANCOUVER, Canada, January 26, 2001 (ENS) - A 73 year old great grandmother sentenced to a year in jail after peacefully protesting logging in the Elaho Valley has been released early on appeal. Betty Krawczyk has been imprisoned since September 15, 2000 after British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Glen Parrett found her guilty of criminal contempt of court. The previous September, Krawczyk had defied a court injunction by blockading a logging road into the upper Elaho Valley, 170 kilometers (105 miles) north of Vancouver near the world class ski resort Whistler Mountain. She was protesting logging by International Forest Products (Interfor) of an area that includes Douglas firs and western red cedars more than 1,000 years old. Parrett added to the severity of the unprecedented sentence by stipulating that Krawczyk should receive no time off for good behavior. The judge said Krawczyk's repeated defiance of court injunctions deserved a harsher sentence.

Yesterday, the B.C. Court of Appeal ordered Krawczyk's release, saying her continued incarceration could lower public respect for the courts. "The sentence was clearly unfit," said Appeal Court justice Ian Donald in his reasons for judgment. "A term of one year was well outside the range of comparable cases." Outside the courthouse, Krawczyk was unrepentant. "Peaceful protest on a logging road is considered more heinous than actual criminal activity such as the Hell's Angels dealing drugs because drug dealers don't challenge corporate values," she said. "When I stood on that logging road it affirmed human values over the profit motive and that's considered far more dangerous by corporations and governments." While the Louisiana native served her sentence at Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women, near Vancouver, more than 10,000 letters were emailed to B.C. Premier Ujjal Dosanjh and 7,000 to Interfor, demanding her release and protection of the forest she was jailed trying to protect. Krawczyk's sentence was handed down on the one year anniversary of a violent attack carried out by Interfor employees and contractors on the protesters camp in the Elaho in September 1999. Earlier this month, five loggers were convicted for the attack, which left three people in hospital. B.C. Provincial Court Justice Ellen Burdett called the attack premeditated and carried out with Interfor's "tacit corporate approval." But none were placed behind bars. All five received suspended sentences with one year probation.

Four were advised to seek anger management courses. "The plight of the ancient forests of British Columbia is no better served by jailing forestry workers than by jailing grandmothers," said Stewart. "The real crimes are being perpetrated behind boardroom doors and fueled by government complacency. We can only hope the court's decision today is the first step towards real change in attitudes towards forestry issues in B.C," she said.

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