Breaching the Peace

Award-winning journalist Sarah Cox recounts the prolonged battle, led by farmers and First Nations, to stop the cripplingly expensive and environmentally irresponsible Site C dam.

Sarah Cox is an award-winning journalist who specializes in energy and environmental issues. Her work has appeared in numerous magazines, online publications, and provincial and national newspapers. Breaching the Peace is her first book. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia.

Cox supplements her journalistic account of the movement with extensive ethnographic work with the people at its forefront… the resistance has been immensely instructive of how social movements emerge and evolve to make a difference. Breaching the Peace is therefore a must-read for students and scholars of development studies, environmental studies, and social movements. Summing Up: Highly Recommended.

Lianne C. Leddy:

This book is important reading for scholars, activists, and policy-makers interested in environmental justice and community mobilization. In short, Cox’s work will appeal to a wide range of readers; her prose is accessible, passionate, and privileges the words and perspectives of those determined to protect their homes and homeland.

Tom Sandborn:
The prose in [Breaching the Peace] is lapidary, beautifully crafted to give the reader a keen sense of the unique beauties of the Peace as well as some of the personalities in the indigenous/settler alliance that is fighting to protect it.

John Gellard:

Breaching the Peace is an excellent title for Sarah Cox’s important book about the Site C Dam. That title yields a cascade of kaleidoscopic connotations — insights into this complex history of a river being broken up, of communities being divided, of “breach of the peace” lawsuits, and of byzantine machinations by BC Hydro to overcome the resistance.

Michael Harris:

Sarah Cox has written a searing new book about the scandalous Site C Dam in British Columbia … [she] expertly provides the context to the Site C saga that allows readers to understand what has happened here. Few people, except those who stand to profit immensely, have ever been enthusiastic about this project.

Environmental journalist Cox presents a well-researched, accessible history of the Site C dam, a British Columbia project that’s drawn international attention for pork barrel politics, violations of First Nations rights, and threats to the ecosystem in the Peace River Valley. With energetic prose and extensive on-the-ground reporting, Cox profiles the people and issues behind the divisive project.

Charlie Smith:

[This is] a breathtaking examination of how Site C was rammed through despite its devastating impacts on public finances and an ecological treasure trove … Cox delivers science journalism of the highest order, presented with passionate intensity and relentless curiosity.

Karen Bakker, professor, Canada Research Chair, and director, Program on Water Governance, University of British Columbia:
This wonderfully written book brings the story of the Site C Dam – the largest infrastructure project in British Columbia’s history – to life. This thoroughly researched, comprehensive, and astute analysis is a must-read for all British Columbians.

David Suzuki, award-winning scientist, environmentalist, and broadcaster:
This long-overdue and excellent book illustrates how money and politics can override concerns about sustainability and the very real spiritual and emotional values that bind us to place. Read this book to understand why Indigenous people and farmers are fighting together to protect their place on the planet.

Harry Swain, former chair of the Site C federal-provincial review panel:
Economic logic fails, a valley is inundated, and treaty rights are set aside in pursuit of political power: that’s the story of Site C. It is a stark lesson in how cheap politics and intimidation can overwhelm the public interest – but not the enduring spirit of the people of the Peace.

Marc Eliesen, former president and CEO of BC Hydro, former chair and CEO of Ontario Hydro, and former chair of Manitoba Hydro:
Sarah Cox has written a great book. Not only does she provide searing insight into how Site C developed, she does so through the eyes of the people most affected by it. A must-read for anyone interested in policy, politics, and people.

John Vaillant, author of The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed and The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival:
With painstaking research and an even hand, Sarah Cox brings to life BC’s northern heartland of the Peace River Valley, a place and people few Canadians know. In so doing, she exposes hard truths about the tenuous rights of citizens – settler and First Nations alike – as they confront our government’s bare-knuckle ambitions for industrial resource development. This is a necessary book, truly a parable for our time.