CRT Library
On Uprooting and Rerooting: Reflections on the Columbia River Project
“Relatively few people in Canada have suffered the dire experience of being uprooted and driven from their homes. But it happens all the time as public bodies expropriate private properties to satisfy public needs. From the viewpoint of political theory no realistic person will gainsay the need for such power, but public benefit is often secured at the expense of private pain which no amount of financial compensation can lessen. When the Columbia River Project was built, about two thousand people were displaced. Something of their experience was described in People in the Way. This reported on a survey, carried out in 1970 by one author (Wilson), which caught the bitterness and sense of outrage felt by the displaced people; in 1981 the other author (Conn) repeated the survey. This paper examines the reasons for the original feelings, the changes which occurred between 1970 and 1981 and some of the policy implications for any agency charged with a similar task.” (Taken from introduction)
Note: the full text is not available in the CRTDL. For online availability, check: http://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bcstudies/article/view/1158/1202
Author: Wilson, J. W. Conn, Maureen
Publisher: BC Studies
Date: 1983
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