His was a life shrouded in mystery - partly due to the nature of his fringe religious practices, partially because of the extrajudicial nature of the political activism he engaged in, and partially because that was just who he was. Wiebo Ludwig was an oddball, and a violent one at that. Now that he is dead, from esophageal cancer at the age of 70, residents of the northern Alberta community in which he resided can breathe easier.
Ordained as a minister in the United States, Ludwig established a sprawling compound 450 kilometres northwest of Edmonton in 1985, after splitting with a congregation he led in Goderich, Ont., largely due to his misogynistic views. Having moved to Alberta with the Boonstra family, the group was able to practise its non-mainstream faith free from the influences of the outside world. The two families regularly intermarry, and have become largely self-sufficient - farming their food and home-schooling their children.
But in 1990, the outside world began closing in, as oil companies started exploring the vast natural gas reserves near Ludwig's Trickle Creek compound in Hythe, Alta. In the mid-1990s, Ludwig - whose angry posture was shaped by a mish-mash of conventional environmentalism and his idiosyncratic religious doctrine - began complaining that sour gas leaks in the Peace River region were causing environmental degradation to his property, resulting in the death of some of his livestock and two miscarriages by his daughter.
The family may well have had legitimate grievances against the oil companies, but never developed evidence to back up their case. When Bo Ludwig and Renee Boonstra gave birth to baby Abel, stillborn and with serious deformities, the Ludwigs immediately blamed the oil and gas industry. Yet they refused to have the body examined by the coroner. (Wiebo Ludwig himself clearly harboured a pronounced and self-destructive suspicion of conventional medicine till his dying days: He refused to be treated with conventional cancer therapies, and instead opted for useless vitamin-based treatments.) Had specialists been permitted to establish a cause of death, and test the local soil and water supply for contaminates, Ludwig might have been able to keep the gas companies at bay through entirely legal means.
When one oil and gas company proposed doing seismic testing, and another began drilling a well north of the Ludwig compound, the family barricaded the road to prevent access. Following a spate of bombings and vandalism targeting oil facilities in the '90s, he was convicted on five charges, including blowing up a gas well, vandalizing another and trying to obtain dynamite from a police informant. He was released from prison after 19 months. But questions surrounding his vigilante activism never ceased.
When another series of explosions rocked pipelines in northern B.C., Ludwig was questioned, but never charged. "If you want to know if I was involved in any of that sabotage, well, if I was, would I be stupid enough to tell you?" he said at the time. Then there was the mysterious shooting death, in 1999, of a woman joyriding on Ludwig's property, which also resulted in no charges.
Even now, years after Ludwig's conviction and incarceration, some in the environmental movement still try to paint Ludwig as an eco-warrior who valiantly stood his ground against the forces of Big Oil. But we should make no mistake about it: Instead of working through the legal system, Ludwig waged a campaign that showed no respect for private property. In death, as in life, he was not any kind of hero or role model.
Original Article
Source: national post
Author: --
Ordained as a minister in the United States, Ludwig established a sprawling compound 450 kilometres northwest of Edmonton in 1985, after splitting with a congregation he led in Goderich, Ont., largely due to his misogynistic views. Having moved to Alberta with the Boonstra family, the group was able to practise its non-mainstream faith free from the influences of the outside world. The two families regularly intermarry, and have become largely self-sufficient - farming their food and home-schooling their children.
But in 1990, the outside world began closing in, as oil companies started exploring the vast natural gas reserves near Ludwig's Trickle Creek compound in Hythe, Alta. In the mid-1990s, Ludwig - whose angry posture was shaped by a mish-mash of conventional environmentalism and his idiosyncratic religious doctrine - began complaining that sour gas leaks in the Peace River region were causing environmental degradation to his property, resulting in the death of some of his livestock and two miscarriages by his daughter.
The family may well have had legitimate grievances against the oil companies, but never developed evidence to back up their case. When Bo Ludwig and Renee Boonstra gave birth to baby Abel, stillborn and with serious deformities, the Ludwigs immediately blamed the oil and gas industry. Yet they refused to have the body examined by the coroner. (Wiebo Ludwig himself clearly harboured a pronounced and self-destructive suspicion of conventional medicine till his dying days: He refused to be treated with conventional cancer therapies, and instead opted for useless vitamin-based treatments.) Had specialists been permitted to establish a cause of death, and test the local soil and water supply for contaminates, Ludwig might have been able to keep the gas companies at bay through entirely legal means.
When one oil and gas company proposed doing seismic testing, and another began drilling a well north of the Ludwig compound, the family barricaded the road to prevent access. Following a spate of bombings and vandalism targeting oil facilities in the '90s, he was convicted on five charges, including blowing up a gas well, vandalizing another and trying to obtain dynamite from a police informant. He was released from prison after 19 months. But questions surrounding his vigilante activism never ceased.
When another series of explosions rocked pipelines in northern B.C., Ludwig was questioned, but never charged. "If you want to know if I was involved in any of that sabotage, well, if I was, would I be stupid enough to tell you?" he said at the time. Then there was the mysterious shooting death, in 1999, of a woman joyriding on Ludwig's property, which also resulted in no charges.
Even now, years after Ludwig's conviction and incarceration, some in the environmental movement still try to paint Ludwig as an eco-warrior who valiantly stood his ground against the forces of Big Oil. But we should make no mistake about it: Instead of working through the legal system, Ludwig waged a campaign that showed no respect for private property. In death, as in life, he was not any kind of hero or role model.
Original Article
Source: national post
Author: --
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