{"id":28447,"date":"2020-01-30T11:20:05","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T10:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=28447"},"modified":"2021-07-30T12:30:43","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T10:30:43","slug":"dorothy-metcalfe-obituary-1931-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/28447\/dorothy-metcalfe-obituary-1931-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Dorothy Metcalfe: 1931 – 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Greenpeace\ncofounder Dorothy Metcalfe passed away on December 10. Dorothy operated the\nradio link, connecting the boats to international media, during the first two\nGreenpeace campaigns to stop nuclear testing\nin 1971 and 1972. She waged a media battle with Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau\nand organized an audience with Pope Paul VI. She was a seasoned journalist and\na creative campaigner, who knew how to capture and hold the interest of the\nmedia and public.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Photograph caption: Dorothy Metcalfe (right) with Dorothy Stowe and Rex Weyler, 2004
\u00a9 Rex Weyler<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Dorothy\nwas born April 16, 1931, in Winnipeg, Canada.\nShortly after her birth, her Ukrainian-Polish parents changed the family name from\nHrushka to “Harris,” to fit into Canadian society. She grew up\nthrough the depression, alcohol prohibition, and World War II. Dorothy loved\nhistory and literature, and became a journalist for the Winnipeg Tribune<\/em>. At a gathering of Winnipeg reporters, drinking bootleg whiskey, she met her\nfuture husband Ben Metcalfe. In the 1950s, Dorothy and Ben travelled Europe,\nfiling stories for the North America Newspaper Alliance. Dorothy gave birth to\ntheir first child, daughter Michelle, in London.<\/p>\n\n

In 1954, when the US detonated a massive\nthermonuclear bomb test in the Pacific ocean, spreading radioactive fallout\naround the globe, Dorothy and Ben became dedicated peace activists. <\/p>\n\n

Back\nin Canada, Ben found work at The Province<\/em>\nnewspaper in Vancouver. Their son Michael was born in West Vancouver in 1956\nand Christopher two years later. Dorothy continued her peace advocacy from\nhome, often doing research for Ben’s newspaper stories and for his CBC nature\nshow, Klahanie<\/em>. In 1969, to promote\nthe idea of ecology, Ben and Dorothy spent $4,000 (about $20,000 in 2020\nCanadian dollars), to place twelve billboards around Vancouver, proclaiming:\n“Ecology? Look it up! You’re involved.”<\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

In August 1969, when the US announced a nuclear bomb test for\nAmchitka Island in Alaska, Dorothy and Ben joined forces with Irving and\nDorothy Stowe, Bob and Zoe Hunter, Jim and Marie Bohlen, Bill Darnell, and\nothers to launch a campaign to stop the test. This small group of Canadians and\nexpatriate Americans became Greenpeace. <\/p>\n\n

Borrowing a Quaker tactic, the group decided to send a small\nfish boat into the US nuclear test zone. Ben Metcalfe joined the crew, and\nrelayed news stories back to Dorothy, who had set up a radio and wire service\nin her home. Dorothy recorded radio calls from the boat and passed them along\nto Canadian and international journalists. <\/p>\n\n

Dorothy’s political savvy and journalist network made the campaign a\nhuge story across Canada and the US. Over the radio, Dorothy told Ben. \u201cNixon\u2019s\nunder pressure from his own party. Gravel and Inouye in the Senate are opposed.\nHirohito is going to meet with Nixon in\nAnchorage this month and he\u2019s<\/em> not in\nfavor of the bomb. No one wants to come out in favour of the bomb. It\u2019s\ngoing to come down to the Supreme Court.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Since the US Air Force was attempting to keep track of the\nGreenpeace vessel, Dorothy remained in daily contact with the US Coast Guard\nand learned that a directive had gone out to pilots: SEARCH CAN VES GREEN\nPEACE. Dorothy Metcalfe gave the coast guard the ship’s position and told them:\n“We have no secrets. Our ship is heading for Amchitka Island to stop this\nnuclear test.”<\/p>\n\n

Dorothy\nwrote personally to Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, insisting that he\nurge the Americans halt the test. When he took no action, Dorothy chastised him\nin the press for being “cowardly.” She sent Trudeau a personal\nmessage through the media: \u201cFrom the wives and families of the men on board the\nGreenpeace. Our men are risking their lives for the benefit of all mankind.\u201d When\nsome Canadian supporters rebuked her for calling the Prime Minister a coward, she\ntold them, \u201cThis is a democracy. People have a responsibility to speak their\nminds.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

The sophisticated media operation became a fundamental\ndifference between Greenpeace and earlier protest boats such as the Quaker\nGolden Rule, and Dorothy Metcalfe provided the hub of that media campaign. <\/p>\n\n

Les D\u00e9port\u00e9s<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

The US detonated the bomb test in 1971, but then cancelled all\nfuture tests due to the opposition. After the success of the Amchitka campaign\na Canadian reporter accused the Metcalfes of being “anti-American,”\nand claimed that they would never mount a similar campaign against French\nnuclear testing. <\/p>\n\n

“Good idea,” Dorothy told Ben, and within days, they\nformulated a campaign against the French tests on Moruroa atoll in the South\nPacific. A popular French film at that time, Alain Resnais’s 1959 Hiroshima Mon\nAmour, told a love story set against the tragedy of the Hiroshima nuclear\nexplosion. Dorothy called their campaign “Mururoa Mon Amour,” which\nimmediately struck a nerve in France. (At the time, Greenpeace used the French\ncolonial misspelling \u201cMururoa,\u201d which persisted on most maps.)<\/p>\n\n

Ben and\nDorothy ran ads in New Zealand and Australia to find a boat and skipper who\nwould saild to the French test site, which led David McTaggart to Greenpeace.\nThey began a letter-writing campaign directed at French President Pompidou and\narranged to attend the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment, in\nStockholm, to get atmospheric nuclear testing on the agenda. To put more\npressure on predominantly Catholic France, Dorothy arranged an audience with Pope\nPaul VI in Rome. She received a reply from the Canadian Archbishop, saying the\nPope would see them at the Vatican in June. <\/p>\n\n

Ben and Dorothy Metcalfe and their assistant\nMadeleine Reid arrived in Paris at the end of May. They made their way along\nthe Seine to meet Greenpeace activist Rod Marining for a planned protest at\nNotre Dame Cathedral. At Quai St. Michel, French security agents disguised as\nhippies surrounded them, demanded their passports, and placed the three\nCanadians in a decrepit-looking Citroen. Exotic communications gear had been\nbuilt into the car and the dashboard looked like the cockpit of a jet airplane.\nInside a windowless room at the Securit\u00e9 National headquarters, an agent told\nthem they would be deported back to Canada.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cNon<\/em>!\u201d\nsaid Dorothy Metcalfe defiantly. \u201cYou can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cPourquoi<\/em>?\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n

Dorothy reached into her handbag and\nproduced the Vatican cable. \u201cWe have an audience with the Pope,\u201d she insisted.\nThe agent grabbed the cable. There followed a great deal of stomping back and\nforth from the adjoining room, voices on the telephone, and finally the officer\nin charge said, \u201cFine, we\u2019re deporting you to Italy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe have to get our luggage,\u201d Dorothy\ninsisted. The officer said he would arrange to collect their things from the\nhotel, but Dorothy refused the offer. \u201cIt\u2019s personal.\u201d More stomping and phone\ncalls. Reluctantly, the agents allowed Dorothy and Madeleine to return to their\nhotel to retrieve their own luggage, but they held Ben Metcalfe in custody. As\nDorothy left, her eyes met her husband\u2019s and a faint smile crossed her face. <\/p>\n\n

On their way to the Left Bank hotel,\nDorothy and Madeleine stopped at the Reuters office, reported their arrest and\ndeportation, and left information about the Moruroa campaign. At the hotel,\nDorothy called their Canadian friend Lyle Thurston in Rome and told him they\nwould meet him on the Spanish Steps the following day. The two women returned\nto the Securit\u00e9 National office, where a young agent, assigned to escort them\nto Rome, ushered them into a cab. He carried a thin briefcase and appeared\nnervous in his new trench coat. <\/p>\n\n

In the cab, the Metcalfes spoke in French\nwith the agent, which seemed to relax him. When they arrived at Gare de Lyon, a\nReuters photographer stood waiting at the train platform. The agent threw up\nhis hands. \u201cNon<\/em>! Non<\/em>!\u201d he protested, but it was too late. The photographer weaved\nand crouched, clicking his shutter. A crowd gathered to see the celebrities.\nThe Canadians waved and smiled. The agent attempted to hustle them onto the\ntrain, but Dorothy and Madeleine took their time and chatted with the crowd.\n\u201cMadame. Madame,\u201d the agent pleaded. \u201cS\u2019il\nvous pla\u00eet<\/em>. Please.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Once aboard, Ben and Dorothy opened the\nwindows and waved as the train pulled out. The UPI\nphotographer took more pictures. Photographs of Madeleine, Ben, and Dorothy\ncirculated on the wire services with the story. The three Canadians looked like\ninternational jewel thieves, well dressed, suave, but in custody. The flustered\nagent appeared to be on his first big assignment, discreetly whispering to the\nconductors. A youthful waiter in the dining car heard they were from Greenpeace,\nshook their hands, and returned with a free round of cognac for the four\ntravellers. The agent enjoyed his cognac, so Ben bought another round. Then the\nagent felt compelled to buy a round. His confidence bolstered, he now appeared\npleased to be escorting such famous villains. <\/p>\n\n

The drinking continued through Dijon, the\nAlps, and into Torino. Ben and Dorothy kept the agent entertained with stories\nof the Canadian prairies and Europe after World War II. The young man shared\nstories of his boyhood in the French countryside. Ben and Dorothy kept ordering\ncognac. Madeleine pasted a Greenpeace \u201cMururoa Mon Amour\u201d sticker onto the\nagent\u2019s briefcase. Ben and Dorothy explained to him the horror of nuclear\nweapons and radiation. The young man defended France\u2019s right to protect itself,\nbut soon agreed that nuclear bombs might not be the best solution to world\nproblems. The agent fought off sleep as they roared south toward Rome.<\/p>\n\n

When they arrived at the Rome terminal,\nsixteen hours from Paris, the story of their deportation had appeared in the\ninternational newspapers. The French agent stepped gingerly along the platform,\npale and appearing queasy. Madeleine and the Metcalfes headed off to see the\nPope and left him in the train station with the \u201cMururoa Mon Amour\u201d sticker\nstill on his briefcase. <\/p>\n\n

Dorothy Metcalf\nwas a skilled campaigner, who knew how to create public interest, and who was\nfearless in the face of governments and corporations.<\/p>\n\n

There will be a Celebration of Life for Dorothy on Tuesday, February 18 at the Ferry Building Gallery in West Vancouver, 5 to 7 pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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