Premier Wab Kinew announced the protection of Lemay Forest as he started a critically-important Manitoba Hydro news conference on ending export contracts to the United States, and while ambassadors and high commissioners from 18 European countries were arriving in Winnipeg for trade talks. Breaking international news was being made at the Manitoba legislature, yet amidst this chaos, your support brought the Lemay Forest to the forefront and off the chopping block.

“I want the chainsaws to stop,” the Premier said, according to many media outlets. Was it our news release calling out the government inaction, or live radio and TV stories that led to this action? Was it our social media team sounding the alarm when we knew the chainsaws entered the forest? Or was it the thousand letters you signed that we delivered to the Premier? Was it news of the arrest of a mother who walked into the forest by herself to witness the chainsaws cutting down the living glory? Or was it the powerful stories told by the 11 speakers at our town hall, reminding everyone the broad value of preserving this forest? 

We know that since at least our first meeting with Minister Mike Moyes in early February, the Manitoba government has been trying to find a way to save the forest. On Monday, April 14, the Premier announced they were going to expropriate the land and turn it into a provincial park. He said there was still paperwork to do and it would take some time, but he wanted the tension to drop — his government will preserve the forest. 

Heritage resources research on the burial sites brought forward by the Manitoba Historical Society and others, coupled with the growing knowledge of Indigenous sacred sites and ceremony, helped push the government to do the right thing. Minister Nellie Kennedy, Minister Ian Boushie and MLA Billie Cross have pushed this protection to the finish line.   

Seventeen years ago, the phone rang while I was driving my six-month-old son to his post-operative appointment with his surgeon. The caller asked how I was feeling. There are a lot of emotions being a first-time parent and caring for an infant who can't speak while they recover, but I didn’t think that's what the caller was asking. “You haven’t heard?” asked Richard Cloutier of CJOB radio. “The province just banned logging in provincial parks.” 

The raw emotional response — sudden tears and disbelief, joy and pent-up trauma release — was the same yesterday as it was in 2008. No campaign victory in the years since has been so deeply poignant. We stopped the plan to ship crude oil through Churchill and helped protect the largest intact forest on the planet in Pimachiowin Aki — but saving Lemay hits different. And in the small world that is Winnipeg, Richard Cloutier, who happened to grow up in St. Norbert, was again messaging me on this day to talk through this emotional win on the radio.  

Learning the hard truths about burial sites, residential schools, care for women and children, and immediate termination of Indigenous ceremonies feels traumatic. It left a mark on us, the Indigenous community who have kept the ceremonial fire going since December, the people who live here as well as on supporters like you. At stake was a society that held profit over nature and people. We all know it is worth it to speak up for nature and community. 

What we have won is a place to make us all better. A place where nature is part of the healing fabric needed in our lives. We can reflect on past wrongs and build a place of learning and teaching. Big trees, not big stumps, can teach us the way.