Wiebo Arienes Ludwig (19 December 1941 – 9 April 2012) was the leader of a Christian community named Trickle Creek, just outside Hythe, Alberta, Canada. He was best known for his legal problems arising from his conflict with the oil and gas industry. He was convicted in R v Ludwig [2000] AJ v509 at 293 on several counts (see infra) for sabotaging oil and gas wells. From the early 1990s until the time that he died, Ludwig consistently accused the industry of poisoning his family and farm through their attempts to extract toxic sour gas from the Peace River region of Alberta. In his early life, Ludwig worked as a carpenter and as a drywaller. He later studied pastoral ministry at Iowa's Dordt College which is associated with the Christian Reformed Church. While studying at Dordt, Wiebo met his future wife, Mamie, with whom he later had eleven children. Ludwig completed his pastoral education at the Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The property contains several dozen buildings, including a biodiesel refinery, a greenhouse, and a mill. levels of government to regulate sour gas extraction near the community, but the government did not respond. In 2013, Enbridge won the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's permission to refuse delivery of any oil with hydrogen sulfide that exceeded 5 parts per million, half the maximum exposure recommended by federal regulators, finding levels as high as 1,200 parts per million in some crude oil shipments from Bakken formation crude oil.
AEC West bombings
There were hundreds of acts of vandalism against natural gas sites across northern Alberta in the 1990s. Many of these attacks were against AEC West, the main company operating near Trickle Creek. The company negotiated with Ludwig in an attempt to buy his farm; but, two days after these negotiations failed, two of its wells 30 km from the farm were destroyed by explosions. A few days after these explosions, Ludwig stated: "If the oil companies run roughshod over your lives, you have to take defensive action against them, whatever is necessary... You can't just let them kill your children."
In April 2000 Ludwig was convicted and sentenced to 28 months in jail. In October 2000 he attempted to run for the leadership of the Alberta Social Credit Party, but was forced to withdraw from the leadership contest after a judge refused to waive the conditions of his bail. He served time at a minimum security prison in Grande Cache, and was eventually released after only 19 months. He maintained his innocence after being released. Police were never able to identify the shooter, and were not able to recover the weapon.
- done mischief by destroying property; and
- possessed an explosive substance.
He was sentenced to 28 months in jail. At the time in Canada, sentences of over 24 months required that time be spent in a federal penitentiary. Boonstra was sentenced to 21 days.
Encana bombings
In 2008, a series of letters threatening local gas companies was anonymously sent to the Dawson Creek Daily News and Coffee Talk Express in Chetwynd, B.C. The letters threatened Encana to cease its operations near the small town of Tomslake, B.C., just south of Dawson Creek, and close to Trickle Creek. Following these letters local pipelines were hit by six explosions. Because these explosions were similar to other acts of vandalism which had occurred around Ludwig's farm, police suspected his involvement. In September 2009 Ludwig wrote an open letter to the bomber(s) supporting their cause but encouraging them to stop their bombings.
After forensics experts found Ludwig's DNA on two of the letters, police arrested Ludwig in 2010 at a Super 8 Motel in Grande Prairie, where Ludwig had been invited on the pretext of helping with the investigation. After arresting Ludwig the RCMP then conducted a four-day search of Trickle Creek involving over a hundred RCMP officers. The RCMP found evidence which they believed was incriminating during the search, including potassium nitrate (an explosive chemical), 75 grams of marijuana, some chemistry books, handwritten notes which police believed detailed the location of hidden weapons, and notebooks full of information on Dawson Creek, the Canadian government, oil pipelines, and the oil and gas industry. Ludwig explained that the potassium nitrate was for toy rockets, that the marijuana was an anaesthetic, and that the chemistry texts were for homeschooling the community's children. A book on property terrorism was also found on Ludwig's nightstand, but Ludwig explained that it had been a gift. He also received conventional pain relievers and a stent in his throat enabling him to swallow. In the same year Ludwig was also the subject of a documentary, Wiebo's War, which treated his life and conflict with the oil and gas industry sympathetically. In February 2012, Ludwig built his own coffin, and he did his final media interview with journalist Byron Christopher. His last words were a request that his family not quarrel, and that they keep their faith. He was buried almost immediately in an above-ground crypt in a forest near his home. The funeral ceremony was private. The day after Ludwig died, RCMP officers asked his family if they could open Ludwig's coffin to take his body's fingerprints in order to verify his death, but Ludwig's family refused, calling the request "'odd,' 'invasive' and 'a terrible disrespect and interference' with human remains". RCMP officers explained that it is common for police to take fingerprints from a recently deceased person if that person has a criminal record, but third-party experts disputed this claim.