MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release
April 6, 2010

Council of Canadians calls for logging moratorium on Browns Creek watershed

Vancouver - The Okanagan Indian Band established a protective blockade on February 22 near Bouleau Lake to defend the Browns Creek watershed from the impacts of commercial logging by Tolko Industries. The Council of Canadians stands in solidarity with the people of the Okanagan Indian Band (OKIB) in their efforts to protect the water and is urging the police not to arrest anyone, but rather let the matter be resolved at the political level.

“The way to resolve this is not by arresting peaceful protesters,” says Council of Canadians national chairperson Maude Barlow. “The BC and federal governments need to respect aboriginal title and rights held by the Okanagan Nation and the Okanagan Indian Band respectively. This situation highlights the urgent need for a national water policy that recognizes access to water as a human right.”

Tolko had planned to begin logging in the watershed that supplies the majority of the 1,800 residents of the Okanagan Indian Band with water for drinking and irrigation. The OKIB notes that “title to the area is a matter that is presently before the courts and that the Crown has been unable to produce any documentation showing acquisition of title from the Okanagan Nation.”

The recent court injunction is an opportunity for the BC and federal governments to do the right thing. The Council of Canadians is joining the Okanagan Indian Band in calling on people across Canada to help protect the water by contacting their provincial and federal representatives to express their support for a moratorium on logging on Browns Creek watershed.

"Instead of implementing a much needed national water policy the federal government is supporting activities like this that threaten to destroy local watersheds," says Council of Canadians national water campaigner Meera Karunananthan. "Thankfully the Okanagan Indian Band is defending the water from destruction. We support their courageous stand."

"We should all be stewards of the water and the Okanagan Indian Band is showing real leadership in protecting water from private interests – leadership which is so far absent within the BC and federal governments,” adds Garry John, a Council of Canadians board member who has visited the blockade.

The Council of Canadians supports OKIB’s demands for: the provincial and federal governments to recognize the right to clean drinking water; and for the province of British Columbia to stop issuing cutting permits in areas where their title to the land is in dispute and is still a matter to be resolved by the courts.

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For More Information:

Harjap Grewal, BC-Yukon Regional Organizer, Council of Canadians, 604-340-2455,

Dylan Penner, Media Officer, Council of Canadians, 613-795-8685,