TELEVISION

TELEVISION. Cont'd.

BURN IS MAKING WAVES

Photo: A scene from Burn: The Robert Wraight Story is shown in this photo. Wraight is the former Ludwig confidant who turned RCMP informant. (CP/HO/CTV)

Oilpatch activist Wiebo Ludwig has always blamed the energy industry and its sour gas emissions for harming his land, livestock and family in northwestern Alberta. But his actions in the 1990s sharply divided the public, who still view him as either a danger or a simple man protecting his family. "I had great respect for the fact he wouldn't be stepped on," said Alan Scarfe, whose portrayal of Ludwig anchors Burn: The Robert Wraight Story, which airs Tuesday on CTV. Wraight (played by Scarfe's son, Jonathan Scarfe) is the former Ludwig confidant who turned RCMP informant after becoming alarmed by the escalating violence and sabotage between environmentalists and the Alberta oil industry. Ludwig's battle with resource companies in the late 1990s tore apart a rural community in northern Alberta's Peace River country and brought the issue of sour gas pollution into public debate. A powerful man who is preacher and patriarch, Ludwig has blamed practices such as gas flaring for miscarriages in his family and birth defects in his livestock and accused the Alberta government of kowtowing to corporate interests. Emotions boiled over when a teenaged girl was shot and killed joyriding on Ludwig's Tickle Creek commune farm in 1999. No one has ever been charged in Karman Willis's death. "In some sense, though, everybody was guilty of that young girl's death," said Scarfe. "The Ludwigs obviously, the Wraights to some degree, certainly the government, the energy board: everybody was at fault in some measure." Ludwig was sentenced to 28 months in prison for vandalizing oilfield equipment near his family's farm at Hythe, Alta. Wraight was portrayed during Ludwig's trial as a greedy man who turned on a friend for money, but executive producer Mary Young Leckie saw his struggle as a way to give a more human connection to the bigger issue of environmental pollution. "We're trying to find a grain of truth in all of the stories: in Wiebo's story, the government's story, the company's side," said Young Leckie, whose daughter Katelyn plays the young girl killed on the Ludwig property. "Robert's story of a simple man just trying to live his life in a place he thought was paradise and slowly but surely discovers he's living in an environmental nightmare is one audiences can connect to." Burn was filmed southwest of Calgary in Turner Valley, far from the real Tickle Creek out of respect for the people involved in the case whose emotional wounds may never heal. But some of the environmental concerns are the same in Turner Valley, where the province's first oil discovery was made almost 90 years ago and sour gas stacks are everywhere. Wraight and his wife Marita, who are in witness protection, came to the set during the movie shoot and met several of the cast members. That personal contact made a world of difference to Jonathan Scarfe. "Feeling little cysts that are all up and down his throat, (hearing that) his little daughter has cysts all up inside her throat," said Scarfe. "From a self-involved acting standpoint, it makes it so much easier when you meet someone like that," he said, noting that the Wraights only lived in Hythe for two years. "As opposed to pretending that you care, you actually do care." Portraying public figures is nothing new in the Scarfe family.

Jonathan Scarfe won a Gemini for his portrayal of former NHLer Sheldon Kennedy, who was sexually abused by his junior hockey coach. His father recently played Canadian con man Albert Walker, who lied, stole and ultimately murdered his way through British society. Jonathan Scarfe says his father has a tougher job this time. "Wiebo is very public and everyone has a very distinct idea of what he's like," he said. "Dad's the guy under the gun to really nail it." The elder Scarfe felt a bond with Ludwig, although they never met. "I was very sympathetic to the situation that he found himself in - the fact that he was being pushed very hard into a corner," Scarfe said from his own oasis on Saturna Island off the West Coast. "He had tried for many years to take the legal route through the problem he was stuck with, then resorted to less than sympathetic methods," he said. "You've got somewhere that's quite idyllic and you've worked hard to set up, as they did. Suddenly, they were stuck with life-threatening pollution. I can understand why they'd rebel against that." -Judy Mochuk.