To the Editor,
Re: Logging at cemetery’s edge a ‘shock’ for Port Alberni residents, Feb. 23, 2024
I am not shocked. Mosaic’s (formerly Island Timberlands and Timberwest) recent logging adjacent to the cemetery and Hole in the Wall in Port Alberni shows in the worst way that it respects the dead as much as it respects streams, watersheds, public access and amenities, wildfire risk, and wildlife habitat.
The tepid and laughable justification about removing the barrier at the cemetery for public safety, without even consulting the owner, belies the intent Mosaic always has; to make money at our expense.
I would imagine it also wants to extract its pound of flesh before offering the land for sale — at market price, of course — either to private developers or local government so the company can limit its own liability as visitor traffic to the Hole in the Wall increases.
This is an irresponsible and irredeemable entity.
It is time for the B.C. government to right old wrongs and return lands stolen from Indigenous Peoples and given away to coal barons.
They can start by expropriating the former E&N Land Grant and ending the reign of Mosaic over our forests.
Chris Alemany,
Port Alberni