Fairy Creek injunction renewed by BC Court of Appeal
Posted October 10, 2021 12:35 pm.
FAIRY CREEK (NEWS 1130) — A logging company whose operations at Vancouver Island’s Fairy Creek has drawn over a thousand protesters over recent months has been granted another injunction.
The initial injunction expired last week, but was reinstated on an interim basis by the BC Court of Appeal on Friday. Protesters will once again be subject to arrest in the injunction zone, in a movement that started in August 2020. Protestors say they are standing up to protect the last old-growth forests in B.C.
Conrad Browne is the director of Indigenous partnerships for Teal Cedar, the logging company working in the watershed area. He describes what he feels is increasingly risky behaviour by protestors at the site.
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“There has been a small amount of work still being able to carry on, and the protestors have been running out of the bush sometimes naked and approaching fallers as they’re falling trees,” he said.
“We’ll hopefully reinstate some civil-ness to the operation and prevent some anarchy from continuing to happen. Some pretty incredible things have happened in the last week to 10 days.”
There have been more than 1,000 arrests at Fairy Creek since the original injunction went into effect in April.
Saul Arbess with the Rainforest Flying Squad says the reinstatement of the injunction is disappointing. Arbess says he wants the demonstrators to remain peaceful in their actions.
“There are some exceptions, but it is very rare. In a movement of this magnitude, you’re going to have some people that violate the principles of non-violent civil disobedience,” he said. “But we do have the code of conduct, and we do have weekly meetings.”
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However, Arbess doesn’t expect any more violent clashes with the RCMP, as have been seen more recently in past months.
“We’re hoping that the cautions that were given to the RCMP will be observed, so we will not have injury to our people,” he said.
The Rainforest Flying Squad would “of course” prefer if the injunction didn’t exist, but acknowledges it is a temporary measure.
“We do understand that it does exist and it is on an interim basis pending the appeal at the Court of Appeals in November,” Arbess said.
The injunction will last until at least Nov. 15.
