By Maryanna Gabriel
 |
| The rare Golden Spruce is sacred to the Haida. |
I went to the theater last night. Author Jon Vaillant came to Salt Spring once again with the showing of a newly released documentary film "Hadwin's Judgement" by Sasha Snow surrounding the mysterious story of the cutting down of the sacred Golden Spruce by West Vancouver born Grant Hadwin on Haida Gwai. Author and film maker have collaborated once again for both are impacting each other's work in complimentary ways. Jon Vaillant wrote "Tiger" after seeing Snow's film "Conflict Tiger" and now this same filmmaker has made "Hadwin's Judgement" after reading "The Golden Spruce" by Jon Vaillant. The film has also returned home for the one of the producers is from Salt Spring Island. The film was interesting because we are introduced to some of the people that knew our strange protagonist and who recounted their experiences of him which created an entirely new slant to a rather puzzling, and at times, shocking story. I lived and worked in Haida Gwai as a young woman for a short while and it was interesting to see how the filmmaker wove the geography into the events. As I came out of the theater I thought that in a strange way Grant Hadwin has finally achieved his goal of drawing attention to over-forestation but it is quite likely that he did not foresee his death as the outcome. In conclusion, what struck me is how he created a maze he could not find a way out of.
