Author Description

From award-winning journalist Sarah Cox comes the inspiring and astonishing story of the farmers and First Nations who fought the most expensive megaproject in BC history and the government-sanctioned bullying that propelled it forward. In 2010, the BC government announced its plan to build a third hydroelectric dam on the Peace River. Although Site C would cost $9 billion and would destroy land of great ecological value and significance to First Nations, Premier Gordon Campbell and his successor, Christy Clark, insisted it was necessary to generate jobs and clean energy. Starting in 2013, Sarah Cox travelled to the Peace Valley to talk to locals about what was really at stake. This powerful work of advocacy journalism reveals the dam’s true costs from the perspective of those trying to stop the wholesale destruction of their land and their way of life. In frank and moving prose, Cox weaves the personal stories of expropriated farmers such as Ken and Arlene Boon and First Nations leaders such as Roland Willson into a stunning exposé of Big Hydro and its power to erode our land, our rights, and our ability to embrace (and afford) alternative clean energy sources. This modern-day David-and-Goliath story stands as a much-needed cautionary tale during an era when concerns about global warming have helped justify a renaissance of environmentally irresponsible hydro megaprojects around the world.