Wiebo Ludwig dead after a battle with cancer
Posted April 10, 2012 6:15 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HYTHE, AB (NEWS1130) – A man who spent much of his life battling the oil and gas industry in BC and Alberta has died of cancer.
Seventy-year-old Wiebo Ludwig was convicted in 2000 of bombing a Suncor well site, and vandalizing another on close to his farm. He worried the activity was causing health problems for his family and livestock.
The news of his death has one northern Alberta mayor hoping tension in his community will decrease.
Gary Burgess is the mayor in Hythe, a village near Ludwig’s home.
“It was very unsettling. I don’t think a lot of people understand why he had all these grievances over the oil and gas industry. I’ve been in it myself for 33 years and I don’t have any health problems,” explains Burgess.
“People that I’ve worked with in that time don’t have any health problems either, so I don’t know, and we worked directly in it a lot closer than he ever did.”
Burgess suggests Ludwig’s death may allow some people to sleep a little easier in his community.
“Hopefully things will change for the better now, and the rest of the people will understand it’s just a process of life, and development, and progress, and we just have to accept things the way they are.”
Ludwig’s farm was searched in 2010 as police investigated six pipeline bombings near Dawson Creek, BC. He was never charged in connection with those incidents.
He actually wrote a letter to the media, asking for calm in the wake of the explosions.
