What am I doing to address the climate crisis? How far will I go to defend the earth? What price am I willing to pay for climate justice?
Since 2014, hundreds of people have been arrested while engaging in non-violent civil disobedience to protest the “TMX” Trans Mountain pipeline project. Standing on High Ground: Civil Disobedience on Burnaby Mountain includes twenty-five stories of people who put themselves on the line for climate justice. While some of those arrested were longtime activists, others felt compelled to act for the first time in their lives. Editors Rosemary Cornell, Adrienne Drobnies, and Tim Bray showcase the profiles of Indigenous leaders, academics, faith leaders, political leaders, engineers, artists and writers, scientists, physicians, and ordinary folk from diverse backgrounds and experiences. Their reflections on the protests and their arrests explore our moral duty to future generations, government’s collusion with corporate power, the violation of Indigenous Law, and unsustainable worldviews. Climate activists in protest movements such as the one against the TMX pipeline are critical in the existential fight for a sustainable future and habitable planet. They show us that we can all take a stand.
Contributors
Rosemary Cornell
Rosemary Cornell has been
an activist for Nature conservation and regeneration since childhood
as she watched in consternation and grief as the forest surrounding
her home was converted into a housing subdivision. Speaking the
uncomfortable truth is a value engrained into her by the religious
community within which she was raised. She was a professor of
Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Simon Fraser University
on Burnaby Mountain for 33 years, and for eight years collaborated
in research with co-editor Adrienne Drobnies. She lives in a
wonderful neighbourhood on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish,
and Tsleil-Waututh, and has two inspiring adult children, whose
future is her prime concern.
Adrienne Drobnies
Adrienne Drobniesis a PhD
chemist and poet living in Vancouver, BC, on the territories
of the Coast Salish people. She was a researcher at Simon Fraser
University, and then project manager at the BC Genome Sciences
Centre until 2013. In 2019, she published her first book of poetry,
Salt and Ashes (Signature Editions), which won
the Fred Kerner Award from the Canadian Authors Association.
Her poem “Randonnées,” won the Gwendolyn MacEwen
Award and was shortlisted for the CBC Literary Prize. She
is grateful to breathe the air, walk along the ocean, and wander
through the forests of the lands where she resides, and seeks
in whatever ways she can to sustain that abundance for future
generations.
Tim Bray
Tim Bray is a software engineer, writer, and
environmentalist in Vancouver, BC, on the territories of the
Coast Salish peoples. He is the founder of two companies, a major
contributor to Internet Standards, and the author of a popular
blog at tbray.org. In March 2018
he was arrested while protesting the TMX pipeline, and in May
2020 he made headlines by resigning from his position as VP/Distinguished
Engineer at Amazon’s cloud computing division in protest
at the treatment of warehouse workers and whistleblowers.
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This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada. Ce projet est financé en partie par le gouvernement du Canada.
