Betty Krawczyk's New Battles
She wants her day in the Supreme Court, and will run for mayor of Vancouver.
Krawczyk:'City's in shambles!'
"I've been in jail for so long I can't remember where anything is anymore," says Betty Krawczyk, rummaging through cupboards. She pulls out a basket and holds it up triumphantly. "So what kind of tea do you like?"
I am sitting in the modest east side apartment of Vancouver's most famous raging granny, the firebrand environmentalist who stood in front of bulldozers at Clayoquot Sound and Eagleridge Bluffs and vowed, "There will be no logging here today." I've seen her before, once standing on the steps on the law courts booming into a microphone before a throng wearing 'Free Betty' buttons and T-shirts, and in pictures of a Critical Mass rally where she was being carried around the street on a chariot like a Roman empress. So I'm a little surprised when she comes over and plops a pink napkin in my lap and asks, "Do you take honey in your tea, dear?"
Not that Krawczyk is about to go from inmate to homebody.
She is back in court this week and hopes to bring her case to the Supreme Court, where she can challenge the constitutional validity of commercially obtained injunction zones.
And she's running for mayor of Vancouver. "I got out of prison and the city's in shambles!" she shrieked to the delight of the crowd at the rally after her release. "There's garbage everywhere! Anyone can do a better job than this."
'Never felt alone'
While in jail, Betty Krawczyk read a lot in her room, took walks every day, and bonded with the other women inmates, many of whom she says were in need of a "maternal figure." She considers herself a spiritual person. At the rally at the courts the day after her release she told the crowd, "I could feel your energy. I never felt alone."
It was her eighth prison sentence, spent at the Alouette Women's Correctional Centre. Her crime was the same as before; refusing to obey a court order that instructed her to stay away from Eagleridge Bluffs, which had been turned into the site of a commercial injunction zone when construction company Kiewit & Sons gained the contract as part of the development to improve the Sea to Sky highway in preparation for the 2010 Olympics.
Krawczyk says commercial injunctions of the sort that landed her in jail "strip people of their legal rights, their rights under the charter. It's the same kind of legalities that are used to toss poor people out of substandard housing."
Krawczyk draws a connection between the endangered species being displaced at Eagleridge Bluffs, and street people in Vancouver being denied social housing in favour of new condominium construction projects. "It's like the homeless people on the downtown eastside. We're destroying their habitat. Where are they going to live? They're like the spotted owl, an endangered species. It's all the same," she says.
The only time Krawczyk shows anger is when she talks about those who "just don't care." She puts heavy intonation on the word, and screws up her mouth and nose in disdain.
I ask her why she thinks she was put in jail, and for so long. "Because I challenged a judge's order. It's about the judges -- they can do whatever they want."
The arrest of Krawczyk and others at Eagleridge Bluffs followed a pattern becoming quite familiar to protesters in B.C. The penalties for disobeying a court injunction are much heavier than for misdemeanour crimes like trespassing. Once a firm has wrangled a court injunction against direct action protest methods such as blocking a road or swarming a bulldozer, activists who disobey the injunction are seen by judges to be directly challenging the very authority of the courts.
That is why Krawczyk served more time for her protesting than do many criminals who steal or assault.
Krawczyk wants to argue in Supreme Court that use of commercial injunctions is an unconstitutional method of squelching dissent. If she wins, the decision would change the way protests are carried out, and snuffed out, in British Columbia.
Lifetime of protest
Krawczyk has a long history of activism that has spanned over decades and across borders. She is an American by birth, and first got involved with the fight to desegregate her children's school in Louisiana in the '60s, and was an outspoken agitator during the civil rights movement. She became an avid protester during the Vietnam War, and her list of complaints against her government grew even longer when she saw the Southern Wetlands become desecrated by commercial development. She was married three times, and had eight children.
After her third marriage "bit the dust," she headed north to Canada, where she purchased land near Tofino, and one of sons built her an A-frame house, where she lived happily until the logging began at Clayoquot. "You could only get there by boat," she says nostalgically. "I had always craved the wilderness, I was raised in the wilderness. I feel an affinity." She started to write a book about what she described as the "wildly beautiful," and began to meditate on all her prior activism.
"I was looking for a common denominator. I had also become a real feminist ... and I noticed the destruction by the logging." She says that seeing the destruction of the environment in her new home really brought it all together for her. "The bottom line is when the environment is getting treated in this way, so can poor people, so can poor children." She says that she drew a parallel between the environment being treated with "indifference and contempt" and the treatment of society's poor and marginalized. "The opposite of love is not hate -- it's indifference," she said. "Indifference to the land and water is indifference to life itself."
'Half-baked men fighting'
With defiance, she talks about "a lot of half-baked men fighting other men for resources," noting that women and children often get overlooked during this "male" competition for wealth and resources. She says that what links all her activism together -- desegregation, the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement, and environmentalism -- is the fight against "contempt and indifference towards life forms."
When two of her children died of cancer, Betty drew more connections between environmental pollution and her children's illnesses. She identifies as a "motherist," and a "grandmotherist," and discusses this notion in connection with her role in protecting the environment. She talks about the "grandmother theory," an anthropological query into the evolutionary aspects of menopause. "We're the only species to go through menopause ... and it's so we can help teach and feed our grandchildren," she says.
She also has a theory about "common evolution." Human evolution, she says, is meant to be in sync with animal and plant evolution. To deny common evolution is "to be drawn towards death." She means death on many levels, and sees the death of endangered species and the death of social programs that are geared towards helping the poor as symptoms of a greater cultural problem. It's all the same, as she tells it.
I ask if she would go back to prison to protect nature or the poor, and she says that she would. That would be a sacrifice, I say. She disagrees. "It's my job."
"Eagleridge Bluffs was alive," she says remorsefully, "it was teeming with life."
Related Tyee stories:
- Harriet Nahanee Did Not Die in Vain
Let's learn from Eagleridge Bluffs protest. - Showdown on the Bluffs
Protesters arrested. A public's attention captured. - Lousy Judgment
Bad politics, weird decisions: a system in need of reform.
![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
robin
10-10-2007
oh pllllleeeeease. not this
oh pllllleeeeease. not this blowhard again. this woman degrades the cause of the true environmentalists in this province by making them look like blathering fools. couldn't we lock her up again?
bpither1
10-10-2007
Oh Betty has probably heard
Oh Betty has probably heard "this blowhard" comment all her life but she was right about desegregaton, civil rights, the Vietnam War and Clayoquot. This is all pretty much taken for granted today but it's usually the blowhards who sow the first seed just to get the rest of us to finally use our brains.
I voted for her because I just couldn't cast a ballot for someone else in my riding. Anyone can wrap themselves in a green flag and call themselves a "true environmentalist". Patrick Moore does it all the time when he speaks about the virtues of fish farming. And recently the Entertainment Industrial Complex a.k.a the media blithely projects the image of Campbell as a new avatar of Ecology ... this is the same Premier who "gutted the Ministry of Environment" as Libby Davies points out.
She is seemingly consistent with her values while most of us are not. When was the last time you went to jail for your beliefs? I've known gadflies like her all my life and sometimes wish I had the same unrelenting courage.
ME2
10-10-2007
activism
Well, Robin, at least she isn't so busy schmoozing Campbell and the FNs for grants, consultancies and paid seats on advisory boards, that she can't find time to be an activist.
My only quibble with her - since grandstanding is part of the scene for many successful activists - is that Eagleridge was a very poor choice in which to invest so much energy.
Grumpy
11-10-2007
Let all political prisoners run
Not that Betty K. would win but she would bring some spice to a deadly dull civic election in Vancouver. The "I know better than you' nattering NPA; the grossly inept NDP/Vision; and the hopelessly self absorbed COPE are so deadly dull, that no one would bother voting.
Hey just a minute, she might win!
No, no never, but it might give the Olympic (TM) Committee some well deserved grief.
Working Memory
11-10-2007
Betty K Bambozzled By Media & Protesters
Betty K is a by product of 2010 Olympics mainstream news media manipulation.
On March 6, 2007, Vancouver's most popular broadsheet ran a story above the fold in their WESTCOAST section with a headline that blurted "Elderly activist gets 10 months - Cries of shame greet Betty Krawczyk's contempt sentence."
The emotional headline was accompanied by a large picture of a smiling Betty K being hugged by anti-Olympic protesters in front of the Supreme Court House just before her sentencing, while protesters in the background solemnly stood and clapped their hands.
The headline and picture were manipulative, and if the story was to be used at all, it belonged on page 3 with a much smaller picture and less emotional tone.
Smart young activists used her to advance their dangerous and violent anti-Olympic protest. She was used as a pawn in a modern day battle that this old lady doesn't quite understand.
I know she's confused because I took time to go to Eagleridge Bluffs last year to talk to Betty K, and to ask her to reconsider her old habits of civil disobedience.
I told here there were much more effective ways to impact VANOC and reach her goals.
You can read Betty's response here . . .
monty
11-10-2007
Let's reconsider
Enough is enough. This publicity seeking woman should settle down and live quietly and give us all a break from her tirades.
robin
11-10-2007
'The emotional headline was
'The emotional headline was accompanied by a large picture of a smiling Betty K being hugged by anti-Olympic protesters in front of the Supreme Court House just before her sentencing, while protesters in the background solemnly stood and clapped their hands.' how's that manipulative working? she wanted to go to jail. she got what she wanted and was celebrating. it's not really that complicated. the bottom line is that she comes off as a fool and is an embarrassment to just about everyone concerned. there's no doubt that she and the anti-poverty committee have hurt their so-called causes tremendously over the past year.
clubofrome
11-10-2007
Doing things right...
...is not the same as doing the right thing. 1988 Calgary Winter Games. Eddie the eagle, British ski jumper, the Jamaican bobsled team, the volunteer program that made the games happen, pin trading not buying, etc. It's not the same now. The IOC has been exposed as an elite little clique that likes to collect gifts and bribes. Even when Vancouver won the bid, it was just becoming apparrent that the whole organization stinks. More and more atheletes confessing their performance enhancing experiments. It's probably just as appropriate to call these events the "All Drug Olympics" like the skit from Saturday Night Live. This stuff was going on in 1988 too but was way under the radar. Not anymore, and the press will make up any story it needs to sell papers anyway, so of course we need public opposition to these elitist games. We need Dick pound to refocus his energy from drugs to abolishing the games period. The whole program is now just a complete waste of time and money. Calgary was amazing and I thought the same might happen here, but I was mistaken. Take away the medals and allow it to happen as an international exhibition of talent and maybe then we get something real. The pursuit of Olympic gold is as false an idol as there is today. The US just throws money at the athletes and judges success on the medal count. I thought it was supposed to be amature sport?
G West
11-10-2007
Well Robin, m'dear
As always you provide a 'feminine' perspective that helps disabuse anyone from thinking that women are always more sensible and humane than men.
Thanks for the reminder. Let us know when you find something you care enough about to spend 10 months in jail for it.
Stuart
11-10-2007
Betty, Next Mayor
Their was a real media campaign to discredit Betty because she represents what the main stream media with politicians and business in hand hate and fear. “An active citizen” I must remind some of us what this means; someone who does not want their tax money used foolishly and destructively and feels they can do something about it. Someone who cares enough to make a stand when others are to lazy and apathetic, we live in a country with to many spectators who love to complain but do very little to make change.
I can tell by the postings that most negative comments are from people who probably never met Betty but have judged her by reports from the Vancouver Sun or Red Neck Radio(CKNW) Betty is a published author and has been fighting for social justice her entire life and is always on the right side . The Olympics is increasing homelessness in Vancouver and by 2010 if nothing changes we will have more homeless than Olympic athletes (maybe we will win the gold for that)
Injunctions are an old dirty tool of the legal system that first emerged during the civil rights movement; someone is guilty without being able to make a proper defense as far as motivations and actions etc. Betty is spark of energy and I am sure we will see much more of her, but a single spark can start a huge fire so get ready because the status quo is changing if you like it or not. We love Betty
Notice how scared the mainstream is to even mention her name, she has been all over town at different events attended by 100’s but no mention in the news. Yep, I love to see them running scared.
Stuart
11-10-2007
Womens Rights
Hey Robin, if it were not for folks like Betty, you and Judge Brown would be good little Suzy homemakers doing as you husband wanted. Betty represents those who have spunk and believe in community power , people who don’t always do as their told or allow others to tell us “how it is”.
IAMC
11-10-2007
Confined spaces
Of course Betty has the right to get herself thrown into jail anytime she wants to.
Working Memory
12-10-2007
Betty K had me at Hello ... but
Betty K has the right idea, but the wrong execution for this era.
At one time I was strongly on her side, and to a point I still am, but ... people today blow themselves up to make a statement, so in contrast getting thrown in jail isn't quite as impressive.
Martyrdom is, well ... dead.
Think of all the headway Betty K would have made if she brought her activism up to 2007 speed instead of rotting in jail with a bunch of addicts and miscreants.
All that counts on the 2010 front is results. Everything else is just grandstanding. This is a race against time and VANOC is winning.
The Canadian activists who were recently tossed in jail in China for "one day" after unfurling a Tibetan support poster on the Great Wall had the right idea. They gained world wide recognition by using YouTube as leverage. Those protesters at Eagleridge actually paid The Vancouver Sun in the neighborhood of $17,000 to take out an ad promoting their views. They bought an ad from a company that has a vested interest in the 2010 Olympics. How smart was that? Imagine if they would have invested the money in an online campaign instead - like the Tibetan activists did?
Leverage Olympic momentum cuts both ways.
In Judo you use your opponents weight against them. Find their Achilles tendon and work it.
Many of you will laugh about this next statement, but the IOC's weak spot is their reputation. It's all they have, and it's fading fast. Help it along if you want to attract their attention.
VANOC does not speak tree, babbling brook or red tailed frog well, but they speak revenue stream fluently. Talk to them in their language and you're half way home.
Working Memory
12-10-2007
What is VANOC's language you asK?
It's called VOLUNTEER.
VANOC needs The Vancouver Sun to convince gullible citizens to volunteer to work the Games.
If I were Betty K, I'd be wrapping my arms around and shaking the hell out of that tree.
Shake it hard enough and the nuts will fall.
lynn
12-10-2007
The Gold Medal for Scheming
VANOC does not speak tree, babbling brook or red tailed frog well, but they speak revenue stream fluently. Talk to them in their language and you're half way home.
Right on, Working Memory.
Excellent (and sad point) as well about who and what now lurks behind a growing dependence on volunteerism. Nothing like a pool of "free labour" to increase the profits of pirates/privateers.
And swooooooosh.....all of a sudden, when it comes to volunteerism, the door swings widely open for all things "public".
Where would they be without the goodwill and generosity of the public (system) that they so rely on.... but have little respect for?
Same thing going on in our schools, where parents are being asked to increasingly volunteer/fundraise for vital educational necessities "gone missing" due to government under-funding.
Expose them by refusing to play their sly volunteer game. You are just helping to further disguise the subterfuge.
Percy
12-10-2007
She needs basic civic lessons...
It's called the rule of law. Ms. Krawczyk does no one a favour privileging her own politics over the legal rights of others. There is no such thing as a "commercial injunction", so I'm curious to hear the phrase used in the article. If Ms. Krawczyk has legal grounds to challenge the activities she's complaining of, she can take the matter to court. That's what civilized people do in a society governmed by the rule of law.
clubofrome
12-10-2007
Volunteers
If and when VANOC ever announces the volunteer program there will be no shortage of citizens lining up for a chance at a commemorative jacket with logo. You'll see them worn around the region for years to come. A badge reminding everyone they were part of the show. VANOC will win no matter what the cost. I don't see anything stopping them... well, except maybe the ridiculous ticket prices! Maybe education is the only way to shake the tree. I agree, that a series of well directed video's would be just the ticket! YouTube could be the vehicle. I'm sure $17,000 would go along way to creating some smart, funny and informative "infomercials" showing the follies of hosting these modern games.
New speed skating oval 275 million, bobsled track 82 million, ski jumping ramps used once by 62 thrill seekers 45 million, look on your face when you see the cost of the tickets....priceless.
How about a 400 ton monster street cleaner cleaning up all the homeless people, sweeping them under a rug the size of GM place. Campbell could be the driver. "Just tidying up a bit before the games..."
Have fun with it. You only host the games once!
G West
12-10-2007
Percy
I'd appreciate if you'd do a little research into the evolution of the charge of criminal contempt.
I think you'll find its application in a commercial arena is also a trifle tendentious from a purely legal point of view.
It certainly isn't Ms Krawczyk who pioneered the illegitimate use of the criminal law in areas of civil dispute.
Working Memory
12-10-2007
Volunteering is good ... sometimes
Most people volunteer because they genuinely feel they are doing good.
My business partner volunteers on our company time at a local children's organization because we want to help people. While she does the legwork I pick up the slack in our office, and I feel great that we can help in this small way.
However, it is well documented that volunteering for Olympics organizations is often such a chaotic and distressing event that people who normally volunteer for organizations like the Heart & Stroke, or Cancer foundations become disillusioned and never volunteer for anything again - ever!! It's another "hidden cost" that news media never shares with us.
People also volunteer because it is a cool thing to do. They get respect from their peers.
Volunteering for 2010 won't be so cool when everyone catches on to what really happens. In the past prospective volunteers had no way of knowing because mainstream news media would never give them a heads up, but today, things are different. Now we have The Tyee and blogs.
It is a fallacy promoted by news media that it is hard to become an Olympics volunteer. The reality is that Olympics organization need all the help they can get. In past regions Olympics organizations were so desperate they conscripted from prisons and forced welfare recipients to volunteer.
Most people have no idea that two thirds of Olympics volunteers quit before they finish their run. In Sydney Australia, which is still promoted by the IOC as "the best Olympics ever," the churn rate was 3:1, and sometimes 4:1.
Why is it so high? Why do Olympic volunteers show up on day one to collect their security badge and uniform, and then never show up on day two?
Maybe if volunteers knew this information upfront they wouldn't spend two months and invest a couple thousand dollars of their time training just to bail out before they barely start.
I agree with you clubofrome that some have no intention of completing their term and are only in it for the jacket, but I'm also sure that most are truly disappointed by the experience.
It is not cheap to become an Olympics volunteer when you take into account time off work, hours getting to your post in a security frenzied region, expensive Olympic food, and many many hours of training in a cult-like atmosphere. It's also going to be a surprise for many that their employers will not give them time off, which means you use holiday time.
It's not a coincidence that volunteers are forced to sign confidentiality agreements.
Is there a solution?
All I can think of is education because it's been proven time and again that protesting does not work. Olympics organization know how to deal with protesters, plus they bring the government in as partners to write new legislation when old laws can't manage protesters like Betty K.
Know what you're getting into before you leap.
ov
12-10-2007
The Krawczyk's Case Isn't About Olympics
I was in the court room listening to Betty's entire trial and I can't remember the subject of the Olympics coming up once. I didn't see much reported in the media about what the case was about either; a few spins to dodge the issue was the extent of it.
Betty's case was not about getting thrown in jail, it was about not legitimizing the lack of due process and violation of the criminal code of Canada, which is what would have incurred had she shown remorse or attempted to plea bargain.
This case is not finished yet, because the case is about gathering evidence for a tribunal against the Supreme Court of BC and how they have abused the use of criminal contempt for the benefit of the corporate sector. Read through the legal guidelines for the use of criminal contempt to see what this case was all about.
Any connection between Betty and the Olympics happened outside of the courtroom, and unless you were in the courtroom I don't think you have much to say about this.
realisticman
12-10-2007
Run Betty, Run!
Could be a fun campaign.
How come people like Stuart didn't go into the slammer with Betty? Did they run when the cops showed up? Did they all leave Betty swinging in the wind on that craggy bluff?
What a dame! Three marriages, eight children.
This should be the campaign theme: death. I think Vancouver's ready for it;
Amanda Stutt:
She should kick off her campaign on the steps of the cathedral, dressed in black, "Death lurks everywhere and in all policies that slice away at handouts because yee forsaketh evolution". It's a winner!
G West
12-10-2007
Oh really!
Now why doesn't this qualify as a questionable remark?
If this were an eighty year old man being described he'd be hailed as a fecund hero, a virile ‘performer’ still charging, lance drawn, up and down the lists long after his weaker brethren had succumbed to an easy chair in Beacon Hill Villa.
Strong women, of any age, make some men nervous – especially ones who challenge their authority. That at least hasn’t changed.
Criticize her all you like because you disagree with her politics; but simply attacking her because she's had three marriages and given birth to eight children ...c'mon!
ME2
13-10-2007
Wrong again, Rman
Point well made, GWest.
bontano
15-10-2007
Enviro-hypocrite?
I admire a good deal of what Betty does and was a Clayquot demonstrator myself, but I have a hard time taking her seriously as an environmentalist when I hear that she has brought no less than eight resource-hungry mouths into the world.
If everyone had as many children as Betty, we'd have to pave a lot more than just Eagleridge Bluffs to house and provide services for them all.