History is filled with peaceful protesters documenting their time in jail with written works that have stood the test of time.
Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. are just two of them.
Poet Rita Wong has been imprisoned in the Alouette Correctional Centre for Women for the past few weeks. She was sentenced to 28 days by Justice Kenneth Affleck of B.C. Supreme Court on Aug. 16. The sentence followed Wong’s peaceful protest on Aug. 24, 2018 at Trans Mountain’s Westridge Marine Terminal. Protesters have previously received fines or jail sentences ranging from seven to 14 days. The other 28-day sentence was handed to David Gooderham. These two were handed the longest jail sentences for Trans Mountain protests in Burnaby.
I know this jail well from my time working for a newspaper in Maple Ridge. It’s located on a tranquil piece of land on the South Alouette River. There are much worse places to do time.
But as Wong aptly put it in a poem she tweeted out from jail recently, “lock down is still lock down.”
“Camp Cupcake isn’t as sweet as it sounds
Lockdown is still lockdown
But sisterhood survives it somehow.”
I still get frustrated by pipeline proponents who can’t even summon an ounce of admiration for people who are willing to go to jail for a cause they believe in.
You can read the full poem in the screenshot. According to her Twitter account, Wong could be released from jail as soon as Tuesday.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
