An environmental activist grandmother well known locally for attention-getting logging protests in the Upper Elaho that spanned several years starting a decade ago,is returning to Squamish with a new book in tow. Betty Krawczyk will be at the Brackendale Art Gallery April 2 at 7 p.m. to present her fourth book, Open Living Confidential: From Inside the Joint, her account of the more than three and half years she has spent in prison trying to help protect the forests of British Columbia from industrial clear cutting. The cost is by donation at the door.
Dramatic protests in the Elaho Valley - also known as TFL 38 - spanned several years and involved allegations of vandalism to chainsaws, tree sit-ins, and violent altercations between forestry workers and protestors, resulting in hospitalizations. Elaho protesters also took to the streets of Vancouver's posh Shaunessey neighbourhood in front of the home of Interfor chairman Bill Sauder.
The actions led to criminal convictions of individuals from each side of the dispute, and a one-year sentence for Krawczyk.
Krawczyk was sentenced in 2007 to a 10-month jail sentence for a contempt of court charge resulting from a breached court order during Highway 99 expansion protests at Eagleridge Bluffs in West Vancouver.
"She's now currently in court still protesting the destruction of Eagleridge Bluffs while trying to make the provincial government accountable for its actions," according to her news release.
Open Living Confidential is the fourth book Krawczyk has had published, and includes the 1997 account, Clayoquot: The Sound Of My Heart, and in 2002, Lock Me up or Let Me Go: The Protests, Arrest and Trial of an Environmental Activist and Grandmother.
Krawczyk originally hails from southern Louisiana and celebrated her 80 birthday last summer. She married early and while raising her brood of eight children, studied creative writing through university courses. Active in civil rights, women's rights, and the movement against the Vietnam War, Krawczyk immigrated with her family to Canada in 1966. Divorced, with children grown, she moved to the Clayoquot Sound in 1990 where she began protesting the clear cutting of the area, and of other forests including The Elaho Valley, The Walbran Valley and Eagleridge Bluffs.
