H2Oil A documentary about the Alberta tarsands

Victoria Premiere
Host: OPEN CINEMA
Type: Music/Arts - Opening
Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Time: 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Location: Victoria Event Centre
Street: 1415 Broad Street Upstairs (elevator access) Doors at 5.30pm
City/Town: Victoria, BC

Is water more important than oil?

H2Oil follows a voyage of discovery, heartbreak and politicization in the stories of those attempting to defend water in Alberta against the expansion of the largest industrial project in human history: the tar sands. With hope and courage, this moving documentary tells the story of one of the most significant, and destructive projects of our time.

Loaded Pictures, Canada 2009

For more info and trailer visit http://www.h2oildoc.com

OPEN FORUM DISCUSSION
Will Horter (Executive Director, Dogwood Initiative), Drew Mildon (Aboriginal Rights Lawyer, Woodward & Co), Mel Bazil (Wet'suet'en Nation) via skype and moderator Chris Tollefson (University of Victoria Faculty of Law).

Sponsored by Dogwood Initiative and R.A.V.E.N.
http://www.dogwoodinitiative.org
http://www.woodwardandcompany.com

Torch Relay Protest

Above: Snakes in the Grass protesters wait for the Olympic torch at the Blue Bridge in Victoria, taking the opportunity to educate RCMP Constable Ross Wallace on the finer points of corporate bad behaviour.


On Friday, October 30, 2009, at the start of the Torch Relay in Victoria, snakesinthegrass.net staged two demonstrations against some of the worst sponsors of the Olympics and the overall outrageous spending on the relay at the expense of social services cuts. Early in the morning five hardy souls braved the cold and damp to be at the Blue Bridge when the torch was passed from one runner to the next and carried over the bridge. We were actually personally escorted to the other side of the entrance by Constable Wallace of the RCMP so that we would be better positioned when the torch arrived. (The above photo shows four of us just before we moved across the road.) The torch was an hour or two late in arriving, so we had lots of time to educate the RCMP and the media about our objections to various sponsors of the Olympics and our outrage at the $30 million cost of the torch relay, of which $20 million is taxpayer funded and the rest by mainly Coca Cola, notorious for unethical and criminal acts around the world, and RBC, the major financier of the Alberta tar sands, the most environmentally destructive mega-project on the planet.


Two vans full of cheerleaders passed by, the first loudly touting the virtues of Coke and the second singing the praises of RBC. Shouts of “SHAME!” and “BOO!” drowned them out as we waved and bobbed our protest signs right next to the vans. Here are some shots of a few of our signs.















As the torch carrier finally approached, the next runner engaged us in conversation, objecting to our negative view of many aspects of the Olympics. Naturally, he was completely oblivious to them and totally hyped about his role in the relay. At the passing of the flame from one torch to the next, we made a lot of noise and bobbed our signs up and down, attracting media attention and making it impossible for them to photograph the event without including us. All of this took place just a few feet away from the two relay runners.

In spite of a great deal of media attention, including multiple photographs, videos and interviews, our demonstration at the Blue Bridge was not reported on anywhere in the mainstream media, except for a few seconds of fame in a few of the local TV news reports.

In the afternoon we joined No2010 in “Five Ring Circus”, an anti-Olympics festival in Centennial Square at Victoria City Hall (see above). More of our protest signs are shown below.

Snakes in the Grass First Action!

PNWER Protest, July 20-21, 2008

Written by snakesinthegrass.net
















SIG just completed its first action, a protest against the trade and security "public private partnership" (P3) called the Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER) Summit in Vancouver, Sunday July 20 and Monday July 21. The purpose of this action was twofold: to educate the public about the real agenda of this P3 and its participants and its undermining and bypassing democracy; and to confront the summit attendees and make it known to them that SIG will do everything it can to place their nefarious activities in the public spotlight.

For a video of the interviews, songs and talks before the noisy part of our protest, click here.

Our SIG action in Vancouver on Sunday July 20 and Monday July 21 went well. We leafleted all over the place, including the 9 a.m. Sunday ferry to Tsawwassen, street corners, at the protest, on the Bayshore sea walk, and so on (all while wearing our SIG outfits, which consisted of black outfits under safety vests with our logo and web site on the backs and green pith helmets covered with rubber snakes). We sang our songs in many different places. We demonstrated LOUDLY with other groups (Sunday evening) outside the hotel where the PNWER Summit was taking place (a small crowd with a strong voice and lots of noise making). We sang our songs outside the hotel the next morning. After a day of leafleting and singing around the city, including at the art gallery, we took the 3 pm Monday ferry back to Swartz Bay. We attracted lots of attention, including radio, TV, and print media, filming, recording and interviewing!

The several RCMP officers at the hotel protest showed great restraint, even when the younger activists pummeled the back iron fence with pots (and they did damage it, according to the hotel managers). One of the younger protesters was detained, but only for a while (during the height of the protest, of course…), and rumour had it that he was already well known to the RCMP. Nobody stopped us from doing our thing until, on the ferry going back, one of the crew said we could not distribute our handbills because we did not obtain prior permission from BC Ferries. So we just walked around all of the decks wearing our outfits advertising our web site. If anyone was curious who we were, we could just tell them verbally what we were up to and refer them to the web site.

All in all, it was a very successful maiden voyage of Snakes in the Grass!

You are welcome to add a comment to this blog, especially if you have an opinion about Snakes in the Grass as a new project of the Council of Canadians. In addition, you can also register your opinion by taking the poll on our web site (victoriacouncilofcanadians.ca).