Betty Krawczyk, a 72-year-old great-grandmother and romance writer, has become a hero to many Canadian environmental activists after being sentenced to a year in prison for peacefully protesting against the logging of ancient forests in the Elaho Valley in British Columbia. As she began serving her term yesterday, she said, “If I was out today, I’d be doing the same thing again.” Several other enviros who had blocked a logging road in the valley were arrested and jailed for one or two months, but the court made examples of Krawczyk and activist Barney Kern, 36, by giving them each sentences of one year, longer than the jail terms normally given to drug dealers. Krawczyk, who has already written one book about the old-growth forest battle, “Clayoquot: The Sound of My Heart,” plans to spend her time behind bars writing another book about the logging protests.
