News of traps on nature trails in the British Columbia woods bring back memories of previous eco-terrorist violence in North America. But they also bring something new. Radical environmentalists Earth First! (EF!) once sabotaged ski resorts and attempted to sabotage a nuclear power plant in the United States. Canadian-born Rebecca Rubin stands accused of participating in some 20 acts of terrorism across five American states between 1996 and 2001 while she was a member of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). The attacks in which Rubin and her mates were involved entailed the destruction of industrial and public property, but they never harmed people. Some of EF!ers had a cell in Canmore, AB, in the early 1990s and threatened to spike trees on the sides of the Trans-Canada Highway in order to maim those who cut them. It was the time when the highway was being twined from Banff to the Castle Mountain junction inside Banff National Park. Some may have attempted to blow up oil pumps in semi remote areas. EF!ers may also have shot a few cows near the highways in the Alberta foothills then. The bovines were allegedly guilty of high methane flatulence (green house gases)!!
A few years back a prominent Canadian environmentalist and CBC commentator called for the imprisonment of people who are sceptical of human-caused global warming theory. Since prominent EF!ers rejoiced in the appearance of AIDS as Mother Earth’s way to fight “human parasites,” eco-centred environmentalists had left punishing or hurting humans outside their plans. While there is a pattern unfolding from threat to violent actions, the recent traps in the BC trails also represent an escalation and break with the pattern in one important way. They seem to aim directly but indiscriminately at hurting people. This NP report details stories of several violent attempts to hurt and perhaps even kill people in Canada.
52-year-old hiker Chris Beveridge was running along a Grouse Mountain trail in North Vancouver when her leg became caught in a wire tied to a tree. […] And in early June, across the Salish Sea in Victoria, mountain biker Derek Kidd got his neck snared by a rusty wire strung along a popular forest trail.
Just a few days shy of a year ago, CBC revealed the existence of a Canadian report in which security authorities warned about a rise in radicalised environmentalists in the country. The eco-terrorists may be back in Canada, and this time they appear to want to go further beyond intimidation and the destruction of property.
