Protesters trying to block logging of Island old-growth forests in the Fairy Creek watershed are urging supporters to join them as RCMP officers moved in Monday to enforce an injunction restricting access to the area.
The Rainforest Flying Squad has been blocking logging company Teal-Jones from building a road into its planned cut block in Tree Forest Licence 46, since August 2020. On April 1, the B.C. Supreme Court granted the company’s request for an injunction and police enforcement.
As of Monday morning, RCMP officers had established a checkpoint to restrict access to the area while Teal-Jones begins logging operations.
In a statement, the RCMP said a designated space was created for protesters outside the restricted-access area. “This space will be suitably located to allow for peaceful, lawful and safe protest and be visible to employees of Teal-Cedar Products, their contractors, the police and media.”
People who refuse to leave the restricted area or who are believed to have breached the injunction will be arrested, RCMP said.
Mounties will be stopping vehicles attempting to enter the restricted area and allowing access to hereditary and elected chiefs of the Pacheedaht and Ditidaht Nations, other elected and government officials, journalists, lawyers and doctors.
Mounties said their primary concerns are public safety, officer safety and preserving the right to protest within the terms of the injunction. Planning for enforcement of the injunction has been underway since it was granted six weeks ago, they said, and took into account the remote location and “unpredictable nature” of what officers might face.
In response, protesters took to social media to call for more supporters to join them.
“After 9 months of forest defense this is THE LAST STAND for our forests. We are calling on all of our supporters, arrestable and non-arrestable, young and old to come out to the frontlines and camp with us. We need people showing up at camp TODAY, drop what you’re doing, drop your job, drop your classes, gather your friends and come out to Fairy Creek,” they wrote on Facebook.
Activists at the site could not be reached Monday.
Noah Ross, a lawyer acting on behalf of the Rainforest Flying Squad, said about 60 people at one of the group’s four or five camps have been told by RCMP they need to move by 8:15 a.m. today or they will be arrested. Other camps have not been given the same order, he said.
“I suspect there’s going to be resistance from the people at the camps. I don’t expect anyone is leaving,” Ross said.
Ross said the injunction prohibits protesters from blocking road access or preventing Teal-Jones from working, but he believes the RCMP is overstepping by setting up a restricted area.
“It doesn’t prohibit being in a camp there. It doesn’t prohibit expressing displeasure with the logging. It doesn’t prohibit any of those things as long as they’re not interfering with the logging activities,” he said.
Cpl. Chris Manseau with the B.C. RCMP said activity is taking place on narrow logging roads and creating a temporary restricted area is established under common law to provide officers a safe space to enforce the injunction. The RCMP plans to limit access only for as long as it takes to allow Teal-Jones to complete their work.
A public relations consultant for Teal-Jones said the company would not be commenting Monday.
The company has previously said the Fairy Creek watershed covers 1,178 hectares, but most of its 216-hectare approved cut block is outside the watershed, and only a small amount of the watershed is available for harvesting. The rest is protected for wildlife habitat or on unstable terrain not suitable for logging, and won’t be touched, it said.
The company has said the blockades have jeopardized hundreds of jobs, including loggers and mill workers.
Tensions came to a head this month when an Indigenous man was allegedly assaulted by members of a contracted logging crew who were trying to access a cut block. An altercation caught on video between activists and the crew showed workers shouting at the protesters, with one worker lunging at a man filming the interaction. The activists said three workers tried to force a man to the ground while a fourth hit him.
Huumiis Ventures, a Huu-ay-aht First Nation company, and Western Forest Products — which together own the forest tenure — condemned the altercation.
The Pacheedaht First Nation has said old-growth activists are not welcome in their territory.
“We do not welcome or support unsolicited involvement or interference by others in our territory, including third-party activism,” the nation said in a statement last month.
regan-elliott@timescolonist.com
