Blockade

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In the early 1990s, ancient temperate rainforests on Vancouver Island became the stage for mass blockades against clearcut logging in Nuučaańuł territory. Until the more recent struggles at Fairy Creek, Clayoquot Sound hosted the largest act of civil disobedience in Canada. National news coverage at the time showed mothers with their babies, grandparents, business people, and many other unlikely activists standing on the logging road or locked to makeshift structures, risking arrest to defend these rare, evolved ecosystems. Christine Lowther was arrested in 1992 for lying across the Clayoquot Arm bridge while MacMillan Bloedel fallers tried to drive to work with their chainsaws. Blockade is her gripping, first-hand account of the joys, struggles, and victories of this historic movement.

Drawing from her daily journals recorded at the time, Lowther recounts the vibrant and tense atmosphere of confronting police and loggers with nonviolent civil disobedience. She vividly describes creative direct actions—themed blockades, lock-downs, nighttime barricade building, occupations of ancient trees and government offices. Blockade contemplates the stark realities of the movement, including threats of police violence and the disturbing collusion between the RCMP and extraction corporations. Despite the powderkeg atmosphere, Lowther found wonder by kayaking the inlets and settling down to life in unceded Tlaoquiaht territory where she still gratefully resides.

Blockade is a celebration of resilience and a powerful account of successful environmental activism. It highlights the continuing threat to old-growth forests, with a nod to Fairy Creek, and commends the June 18, 2024 announcement of 76,000 hectares of new conservancies in Clayoquot (Tlaoquiaht) Sound, nearly doubling the protected temperate rainforest within this iconic region.

Thrilling, evocative, and necessary, Christine Lowther’s Blockade showcases the need to defend remnant intact crucial ecosystems hand in hand with the Indigenous peoples whose ancestral gardens these lands are. It is a rallying cry of hope for all those who stand up for the natural world and a roadmap for future generations of defenders.

AUTHOR

Christine Lowther

Christine Lowther resides in ƛaʔuukwiiʔatḥ (Tla-o-qui-aht) territory on the west coast. She is the editor of Worth More Standing: Poets and Activists Pay Homage to Trees and its youth companion volume. Author of three poetry collections, in 2014 she was presented with the inaugural Rainy Coast Award for Significant Accomplishment. Christine’s memoir, Born Out of This, was shortlisted for the 2015 Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize. In 2016 Christine won first place in the creative non-fiction category of the Federation of British Columbia Writers Literary Writes contest. She served as Tofino’s Poet Laureate from 2020 to 2022.

Reviews

I am a protector not a criminal declared Chris Lowther speaking to the judge following her arrest for taking part in the 1992 blockades against clearcut logging in Clayoquot Sound

Indeed she is Protector protester poet and fully prepared if necessary to be a pain in the ass to police and logging companies Chris has been writing to politicians since early high school Her writing burns with anger and grief and despair at all she has witnessed and lived near as the moonscapes caused by clearcutting spread through the great forests of BC

Based on her journals written in mosquitoinfested tents next to active logging sites in protest camps fuelled by stress and intensity and in her isolated cabin in Clayoquot Sound this book chronicles one womans experiences in what are remembered as extraordinary internationally famous actions against clearcutting More importantly though Blockade as a reminder that the struggle is not over ancient forests and watersheds remain endangered the annihilation continues and the voices raised in their defense in the 1990s are still sounding and must continue to sound loud and clear

Chris describes the energy burnout the mistakes the exhaustion the frictions the passionate chaos of her many years of dissent as well as the enormous achievements and the personal costs both to herself and others In her lyrical and keening prose she both laments and celebrates the immense forests the landscape the seascape she loves she takes us there to share with her the birds the animals the giant trees hailed as hanging gardens in the rainforest

We are left in no doubt of their beauty and their vulnerability we are reminded once again of our responsibilities toward them

Margaret Horsfield coauthor of Tofino and Clayoquot Sound A History

True grit passion and a high tolerance for personal discomfortthose are just some of the qualities of forest defenders who literally put their bodies on the line to save our ancient forests Christine Lowthers intimate unflinching account of her time on the frontlines of the War in the Woods reminds us per Gorky that the madness of the brave is the wisdom of life And that when it comes to saving what we love Direct action gets the goods

Ian Gill author bookseller and conservationist

The descriptions are so personal and riveting I felt like I was there A beautiful inspiring book describing the brave daily struggles of people desperately trying to defend the forest and her creatures It will make you want to quit your job and join the nearest blockade

Dana Lyons CowswithGuns activistcomedian singersongwriter

There are many who act without thinking and others who think without acting Christine Lowther the Tofino poet essayist and lyrical conscience of the magical natural biosphere in which she lives is among that rarity one of the few who think and then act upon their conviction that justice requires them to act Blockade a chronicle of more than thirty years of fighting the good fight to save the ancient and endangered rainforest and its inhabitants from the chainsaw the developer and the distant investor is a testament to loveand a fierce and brave love it is From the Clayoquot Sound protest that resulted in the largest mass trials for civil disobedience in Canadian history to the present actions at Fairy Creek her story is the story of an awakening and a challenge to the next generationdoes it want to preserve towering cathedrals of cedar and fir or does it want them turned into twobyfours and toilet paper

Stephen Hume journalist and author

To be invited to enter her intimate life to share the truth of her personal experiences to see the details of a young activists day by day struggles and delights is no small privilege How many of us sitting watching the television news as it flits from story to story know what its like to actually be where the events are happening Chris takes us into the forest into the magic and the songs of resistance and the moment by moment journey of those who care enough to live their hope

from the foreword by Joy Kogawa

Christine Lowthers recounting of experiences during the iconic logging blockades holds wisdom for us all especially in an era where the socialecologicalclimatic crisis is signalling us to radicalize ourselves Blockade instills a reverence for the ecosystems and inhabitants of the temperate rainforest and sparks our embers of courage to act

Lilly Woodbury Surfrider Foundation Canada