Earth Day Activists Take Over Freeway Site
DELTA
– Today, 200 concerned community members took over an active
construction site on the banks of the Fraser River in Delta
(between 10749 and 10739, River Road), obstructing work on a key portion of the contentious South
Fraser Perimeter Road freeway. They planted trees on the road bed and set up
a full campsite on Friday April 22 - International Mother Earth Day. About 25
are currently camped out, vowing to stay and stop the freeway they call a
‘climate crime.’ They expect that the camp will grow as as word
of the blockade spreads
"Gateway's goal with the South Fraser Perimeter Highway is
to triple truck traffic. What they don't tell you is that means triple the
pollution, too," says North Delta resident Richelle Giberson. "I
live three doors up from where this freeway is slated to go. My windows get
coated in black soot from the truck exhaust already; it scares me to think
about what it could be like in a few years.”
“We are planting these trees on the freeway
route to demonstrate that we are fed up with battling asthma and
cancers,” explains PJ Lilley, a Surrey organizer with
StopThePave.org. “As a mom with kids at a school
near the highway ‘fall-out zone’, I want to see a stop to the
insanity of paving over our last green spaces on the Fraser River just to
bring more trucks and pollution to our communities. Christy Clark’s
government is not putting ‘families first’, money must go to
transit, schools and health care instead.”
The province is spending an estimated $2 billion on
the new South Fraser freeway and is planning to spend up to $1 billion
more on the North Fraser Perimeter Road through New Westminster.
Meanwhile, this week, Translink is cutting bus service.
"TransLink has cut bus service to save a few
million, and meanwhile the province is spending billions on freeways which
increase our dependency on cars and tar sands oil," explains
Bob Ages of the Council of
Canadians national board. “1950’s thinking won’t solve the
problems of the 21st century.”
"We must stop spending public money to make the climate
crisis worse, and shift the money to solutions like public transit and
electric trains" says Eric Doherty with the Council of Canadians
Vancouver / Burnaby Chapter. “It’s time for all concerned people
to take a stand against these freeway projects that are cooking our
planet.”
The freeway site occupation is an initiative of local residents
and climate justice activists from StopThePave.org, local Council of
Canadians chapters, and the Critical Criminology Working Group at Kwantlen
University, and is endorsed by the over 20 groups listed at www.StopThePave.org
