Latest Updates
Climate Change Driving Health Costs and Inequities
As the world takes stock of how the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the most vulnerable, a new report from the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices warns that climate change will similarly worsen health inequities and significantly increase costs to Canada’s health system and economy without bold government action. The researchers project the health costs of climate change in Canada to be over $250 billion by 2100. Canada remains the largest per capita public financer of fossil fuels,...
3rd Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation Member Shot by RCMP in 1 Year!?!
We are all hurting from the shooting of a Tla-o-qui-aht mother by the RCMP who survived in a coma on the Mothers’ Day weekend. This was the third shooting by the RCMP of Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation members in the last year -- including Chantel Moore and Julian Jones who were shot to death by the RCMP. Each shooting incident is absolutely unacceptable. Chief Moses Martin of Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation communicated in a statement “Our community and our families are completely devastated. The woman...
Make Throwaway Go Away…
When we are asked “paper or plastic” that choice involves poisoning oceans with oil-based plastics or devastating forests. We have a better choice. It’s time to move beyond single use paper and plastics to reusable and zero-water systems -- and make throwaway go away. “Single use items are quite literally destroying oceans and forests,” said Jeh Custerra, Friends of Clayoquot Sound Campaigner. “It’s time that all levels of government stepped in to end the age of single use for the good of the...
Ocean Restoration within a Generation: What’s Possible by 2050
A scientific review of the world’s oceans published in the scientific journal Nature concluded that the world’s oceans can be restored within a generation. Through rampant overfishing, pollution and coastal destruction, humanity has inflicted severe damage on the oceans and its inhabitants for centuries. But conservation successes, while still isolated, demonstrate the remarkable resilience of the seas. The scientists say there is now the knowledge to create an ocean renaissance for wildlife...
Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones vs. Teal Jones Logging
In the weeks before the BC Government’s announcement, Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones released an official letter of invitation to Indigenous and non-Indigenous forest defenders to unite on his territory to defend the ancestral rainforests of his family -- the unlogged Ada’itsx / Fairy Creek headwaters. His invitation followed the discovery of logging road construction by a subcontractor of Teal Jones. At that time, Friends of Clayoquot Sound and BC EcoNews joined the Rainforest Flying Squad...
Confronting the BC Government’s “Talk & Log” Conflict of Interest
Last fall, prior to the election, the BC Government announced logging would be deferred [paused] for over 350,000 hectares of forests provincially, including 260,000 hectares in Clayoquot Sound. The logging deferral, a first in colonial history, signaled that the BC NDP were beginning to respond to the most actionable recommendations of the Old Growth Strategic Review expert panel: to commit to partnering with Indigenous Nations, and to defer old growth logging at risk of irreversible loss. In...
Forest Defenders Converge to Protect Old Growth: Only 2.7% Remaining on Vancouver Island
Since re-election of the BC NDP in 2020, the war in the woods has reignited. What’s happening at the Fairy Creek Blockades is near deja vu of the Clayoquot Blockades that Friends of Clayoquot Sound organized in 1993, where over 900 people were arrested protecting the ancient rainforests of Clayoquot Sound. Similarly, thousands of people are mobilizing to protect the old-growth trees on Vancouver Island. With over 200 arrested for defending the endangered old-growth ecosystems around the Fairy...
Protect Old Growth Forest Solidarity Rally in Tofino!
Thanks to all the speakers, performers, and participants at the Protect Old Growth Forests solidarity rally!! Clayoquot Sound has a strong legacy and community of forest defenders! On Sunday, June 13, 2021, about 150 people came together in Tofino for a time of community building, performance, and holding space in solidarity with forest defenders across Vancouver Island and around the world. Only 2.7% of big tree old-growth forests are still surviving in B.C. And if nothing changes, they'll be...
Summer 2021 Newsletter OUT NOW!
The FOCS Summer 2021 Newsletter is out with an in-depth look at the major issues in Clayoquot Sound and the work we have been doing over the last several months, including updates on our campaigns. 3rd Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation Member Shot by RCMP in 1 Year!?! Climate Change Driving Health Costs and Inequities DFO Study Confirms PRV SalmonVirus Spread From Salmon Farms Ocean Restoration by 2050
Canada Mandates Plan for Removal of Open Net Salmon Farms
A total of 101 B.C. First Nations, tourism operators, and commercial and sport fishing groups have united in a show of solidarity to demand the federal government take immediate action on the collapse of Fraser River salmon stocks by ordering the removal of open-net fish farms near Campbell River. The Liberal Party’s campaign platform said a re-elected Trudeau government “will work with the province [B.C.] to develop a responsible plan to transition from open net pen salmon farming in coastal...
Cohen Deadline Passes for Removal of 18 Salmon Farms
Independent biologists have proven the risk posed by salmon farms impacts migrating wild salmon. In 2020, axreas where salmon farms exceeded the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ (DFO) sea lice limits include Clayoquot Sound (72% infected), Nootka Sound (87% infected) and Discovery Islands (94% infected). Sea lice outbreaks on salmon farms this spring resulted in unnatural infestations on outmigrating smolts, particularly in the Discovery Islands: 99% of sockeye salmon were infected with an...
Clayoquot Salmon Festival Partners with Salmon Nation for 2020 Festival of What Works
Salmon play an integral role in coastal livelihoods, cultures, and ecosystems on the west coast. And they lead incredible lives, starting in freshwater then migrating to the ocean. Celebrating the backbone of the west coast is what inspires Friends of Clayoquot Sound to organize the annual Clayoquot Salmon Festival based out of Tofino. But as COVID remains a major issue for in-person events, Friends of Clayoquot Sound took the 2020 Clayoquot Salmon Festival online teaming up with Salmon...
Pebble Mine Construction Denied in U.S. as Engineers Face Discipline in Canada
In November, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied the Pebble Mine’s permit to proceed with construction near Bristol Bay, Alaska. Friends of Clayoquot Sound raise our hands in solidarity to the Yupik; Dena’ina and Aleutian People -- and all residents of Bristol Bay who have fought for 3 decades to keep Pebble’s toxic low-grade-sulphur mine out of the headwaters of their life-giving salmon rivers! Yes!!! FOCS continue in our effort to uphold the mining bans of the Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht...
How Defunding The Police Can Create Healthier Communities
Learn more @ defundthepolice.org According to recent polls, only 15% of Canadians believe that the RCMP does not have a problem with systemic racism. Indigenous peoples account for approximately 5% of the population in Canada, yet -- as the Globe and Mail found -- over a 10-year period, more than 36% of RCMP killings involved Indigenous people. The need for change is felt locally by the recent killing of 26-year-old Chantel Moore of the Tia-o-qui-aht First Nation, who was shot five times...
Understanding Systemic Racism through the History of Policing in Canada
Canada’s first prime minister, John A. Macdonald, created what is known today as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). His model was the Royal Irish Constabulary, a paramilitary force the British created to keep the Irish under control. Police in Canada were established to serve the interests of colonial expansion and colonial rule. “The RCMP is a racist institution. What we’re seeing aren’t decisions from a random, bad apple. This is decision making within the institution, tracing back...
