Elizabeth Nickson, Author, Canadian Columnist, Life European Chief, to Speak on Orcas

Elizabeth Nickson to speak at Eagle Forum on Friday, Oct. 11

from the Eagle Forum

UPDATE: October 11. Eagle Forum Event Cancelled Due to Illness

Elizabeth Nickson, former Life magazine European Bureau Chief, is going to be speaking on Orcas Friday night, October 11 at the Fire Station in Eastsound at 6:30 pm.

While at Life magazine, Nickson arranged photo stories and interviewed Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher, the Dalai Lama, and dozens of other leaders, movie and pop stars, politicians, and royalty, as well as torture victims, political prisoners and criminals. She oversaw Life photographers in the field during the first Gulf War.

In 1990, she managed to initiate and co-ordinate the acquisition of Mandela’s autobiography for Little Brown, while Mr. Mandela was still in prison. She spent the first three weeks of Mandela’s release in his back garden.

In 1994 Bloomsbury UK and Knopf Canada published her novel, The Monkey Puzzle Tree, which tells the story of the CIA mind control program in Montreal in the 50’s and 60’s.

In 1998, Elizabeth moved to Salt Spring Island in Canada and in 2000, she moved to the Comment page of the National Post.

During the five years she was a national columnist, she developed a way of framing economics, politics, and culture using personal story to illuminate meaning and import. As a result she became well-known in Canada, was quoted widely, and was much criticized and equally loved.

In 2005, she began the process of dividing her 30-acre forest in half, covenanting her ravine, building a salmon enhancement project and restoring a meadow once used as a gravel pit. She then built a green house, contracting and project managing the construction herself. The subdivision is now taught in local colleges and universities as a case study in “good green development.”

During this period, she wrote Eco-Fascists, How Radical Conservationists Are Destroying Our Natural Heritage, chronicling her experience and using it as a lens through which to examine the excesses of the conservation movement.

She has witnessed, on her home island, how otherwise laudable efforts toward conservation and sustainability have been turned upside down by radical environmentalists. Her caution is that it can happen on Orcas Island as well if we fail to understand how the ideas of conservation and sustainability can be abused.

This is a “Must See” program for all that are concerned about the motive and direction an environmental movement entrenched in the San Juan Islands. Coffee, Tea and Dessert will be Served.

Eagle Forum of San Juan County is sponsoring this event. All are welcome, and bring a neighbor!