Celebrating Rich Hagensen, outgoing chair of BC’s Campbell River chapter

After twenty years as chairperson of the Campbell River chapter of the Council of Canadians, Rich Hagensen is passing the torch to new local leadership. In celebration of his long service as an activist in his northern Vancouver Island community, we had a conversation with Rich about his experiences in social movements.  

Born and raised in Campbell River on the shared territories of the Liǧʷiłdax̌ʷ peoples, including the We Wai Kai, Wei Wai Kum, and Kwikiah Nations, Rich grew up in a union household where labour issues and politics were common topics of conversation. He made his first foray into activism thanks to a local high school teacher who handed out Ban The Bomb buttons and encouraged students to join the movement protesting nuclear missiles stationed at the nearby Comox air force base.   

After high school, Rich studied for three years at the University of Victoria before moving on to work various jobs including office work at a bus depot and Pacific Western airlines, tree planting, roofing and the local pulp mill. In the mid-1970s, he returned to UVic, where he completed a Bachelor of Social Work degree and went on to a career as a social worker in Powell River and Vancouver.   

Rich became an active union member with BCGEU and served as a shop steward for 20 years. He led actions during Operation Solidarity in the mid 1980s and later against Gordon Campbell’s reign of privatization and cutbacks that deeply undermined public services in BC, appearing on TV and helping to organize rallies in support of the labour movement.   

Below are some highlights from our conversation, edited for brevity and clarity. 

How did you first get involved with the Council of Canadians?

I retired early from social work in 2002 and moved back to my hometown Campbell River. My partner Joanne was a long-time member of the Council of Canadians, but I didn’t get involved with the local chapter until 2004. After a while, when the chairperson role was vacated, I decided to put my name forward.   

One of the first actions I was involved in with the chapter was a presentation we made against GMOs on local TV, which was one of our big issues at the time. Another action we did was to organize people to mail a slice of bread to Stephen Harper. We set up booths around town with loaves of bread and envelopes, invited people to stop by and send bread to Harper to oppose his agricultural policies.  

How has the organization evolved since you first became a member?

When I first got involved, a lot of our activism happened at the direction of the national office, which would urge chapters to organize on various issues. This was before social media and Zoom, so we relied on phones and email. We did a lot of direct actions and organized rallies and protests. In the early 2000s we were focused on opposing corporate trade agreements, and our chapter made a presentation to city council and had press releases opposing free trade policies published in the local newspapers.  

In the early days there wasn’t as much connection with First Nations. It wasn’t until the post-Idle No More period that citizens from the community including chapter members and Indigenous groups started to work together more closely, attend each other’s rallies and build relationships. Solidarity with First Nations is an important part of our work today. 

Tell me about a campaign that your chapter was involved in that you’re proud of.

One successful local campaign that the chapter was involved in was a five-year effort to prevent hospital closures on northern Vancouver Island. Our chapter joined forces with the Courtenay chapter and other community groups to build a coalition called Citizens for Quality Health Care. We were joined by health care advocates, nurses, and patients, and we went out into the community every week to gather signatures for a petition to be sent to the Provincial government opposing the Island Health plan to replace the Campbell River and Comox Valley hospitals with one hospital which would be located over 20 miles south of Campbell River.  

We held well-attended town hall meetings with speakers from our two communities as well as from Vancouver and Victoria, and featured ‘Save Our Local Hospitals’ protest songs written and performed by myself and my partner Joanne. We got lots of media coverage for disrupting meetings of the Island Health Board including one large meeting where we would unfurl our petition sheets with over 18,000 signatures showing widespread public opposition. After years of dedicated organizing, we were able to win over local city councils and hospital boards to our side, and the Island Health Board plan was ultimately defeated.   

Tell me more about the organizing tactics that Citizens for Quality Health Care used.

We started out with a public meeting and around 50 people came out to discuss their experiences with the health care system. After that, we held a second meeting with a smaller core group that included local people concerned about the hospital issues as well as people who worked in health care, such as HEU members, doctors and lab technicians. We decided to aim for as much public participation as possible through town halls and public meetings, but to stick with a smaller committee to coordinate planning and organizing. The committee rotated chair responsibilities at each meeting.  

A lot of the organizing and outreach we did was direct, personal and face-to-face. We also used newspaper ads, including satirical ads mocking the Island Health cutback plan. We built good relationships with reporters who featured our perspective in local and provincial media stories. To raise money for newspaper ads, equipment and venue rental and other campaign costs, we passed the hat at meetings. Once the campaign got going, the town halls had hundreds of people attending, so we were able to raise quite a lot of funds.   

Networking with other local organizations (not just health care organizations) was an important part of the campaign. In a smaller town word gets around fast. People started to get really enthusiastic about coming to a town hall and followed the campaign in the news. Getting positive feedback is incredibly energizing and helps to build momentum.   

One memorable action from the campaign was during the annual Canada Day parade in Campbell River. Our group designed a satirical float for the parade featuring a member of our group acting as an Island Health executive shown blowing up the local hospital and other members acting as a nurse attending to a “patient” in a hospital bed. Joanne and I were on the float with our guitars singing our ‘Save Our Local Hospitals’ protest song, and other activists walked alongside handing out leaflets. Creative actions like this that capture the public imagination can really boost a campaign.  

You’ve been a leading voice in the movement opposing fish farms on the BC coast for many years. Tell me about your involvement in the movement.

I grew up in a working-class family in Campbell River and we would often go out in a tiny boat and catch fish for lunch. Catching, canning and smoking fish was a regular part of our lives. Campbell River is a major spawning river, and the town is known as the Tyee salmon capital of the world. 

Fish farms slowly began to appear in the area in the 70s and 80s, first as small mom-and-pop operations. Then the big Norwegian companies came in and took over, bringing in a lot of open-net fish farms. People like Alexandra Morton and First Nations activists started to observe new diseases in the wild salmon populations that migrate past the fish farms, which galvanized the movement to shut them down. This is a long-term movement that has been organizing for decades. 

At a major anti fish farm rally in Campbell River in 2010, Joanne and I sang a song we had composed opposing open net fish farms. This song was later featured in the documentary film ‘The Pristine Coast,’ which argues for open net fish farms on the BC coast to be shut down.  

Our chapter and other BC chapters have been active in a supporting role, working with people like Bob Chamberlin and other First Nations activists. The campaign has been a model of productive and respectful collaboration with First Nations. This is a complex issue with people on both sides, including community members who work in the industry. We support a just transition for North Island residents working in fish farms. We need to keep the pressure up to ensure that these farms finally get shut down.  

What advice do you have for young activists today?

Before you speak out on any kind of issue make sure you do your research. Youth tend to speak from the heart which is great, but it’s also important to have accurate facts when talking about old growth logging, fish farms and other issues at public rallies or on social media. Council of Canadians staff providing research materials has been very helpful.   

Youth should push teachers and school board officials to provide assistance with forming environmental and social justice clubs. For example, School District 71 just sponsored a youth climate action event on the weekend followed by an afterparty, with support from the School Board. 

Our chapter has partnered with a high school environmental club which was fruitful for both groups. The main thing our chapter has agreed on is to go to where young people are rather than expect them to join the chapter.  

I want to offer my deep respect for your decades of activism, and to thank you on behalf of the Pacific chapters in BC and the Yukon for all the work you’ve done to bring people together in the fight for social and environmental justice. Do you have any closing words?

Being an activist with the Council of Canadians has been a source of joy in my life and has made me feel like a more whole person. Working with people in the community for a common cause just makes your heart feel good. On your own you can feel disempowered, but when we get rid of barriers and connect people outside of their silos, everyone feels like they can make a difference. Growing up in a resource town like Campbell River, for too many years the environment was at the bottom of people’s concerns. Through our efforts together with many others we have shifted that attitude, although there is much more to be done.  

I’ve been a musician in rock’n’roll bands and folk groups for 60 years, and I’ve been composing and playing protest songs at rallies ever since I joined the Council of Canadians. Singing songs about issues that matter has been a very satisfying part of my musical career. 

One final observation is that printed materials are still important, even in the age of social media. Pamphlets, buttons and banners are still a factor in getting our message across to the public.