Canada's war in the woods

Canada's war in the woods

From Witness History by BBC World Service

April 22, 2026 · 10 min

About this episode

The episode discusses Canada's largest act of civil disobedience in 1993 regarding logging in ancient rainforests.

In 1993, plans to log one of Canada’s ancient rainforests sparked the country’s largest act of civil disobedience. It was known as the war in the woods. For months, protesters blocked a remote logging road on Vancouver Island, leading to more than a thousand arrests. Megan Lawton speaks to protest organiser Tzeporah Berman who, aged 23, was arrested and charged with 857 criminal counts. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines’ life and Omar Sharif’s legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia…

People in this episode

Host: Megan Lawton

Guest: Tzeporah Berman

Topics covered

  • civil disobedience
  • environmental activism
  • logging
  • protests
  • Canadian history

Keywords

  • Canada
  • civil disobedience
  • logging
  • protests
  • Tzeporah Berman

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Canada, Vancouver Island

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