Monday June 21, 2021 | JUAN DE FUCA, BC
by Jalen C Codrington | Island Social Trends
Over the past Father’s Day weekend, eight more protestors were arrested in the Fairy Creek watershed.
RCMP said protestors were extracted from various locking and tripod devices. One person is alleged to have assaulted a police officer. Of the arrested, two were minors (girls age 13 and 15). In a recent post on their Facebook page, protestors accused loggers and RCMP of taunting and abusing the two girls.
According to Lake Cowichan RCMP, the arrest count has hit 254, most of which have been for violating the injunction prohibiting interference with Teal-Jones’ logging operations. Some of the protestors have been arrested multiple times.
Meanwhile, a 7-day hunger strike in front of the office of Environment and Climate Change Canada in Vancouver came to an end on Saturday. The demonstrators had called for an “urgent meeting” with premier John Horgan, provincial Minister of Forests Katrine Conroy, and federal Minister for Environment and Climate Change John Wilkinson, to discuss old-growth logging. They did not receive their meeting.
“I didn’t expect the premier to pull up and talk to us,” said Brent Eichler, member of Extinction Rebellion, “but I feel very, very disappointed by the NDP who I have supported my entire life.”
Eichler did say, however, that he was heartened to receive a phone call from BC Green Party leader Sonia Fursteneau.
In addition to Vancouver and across the island, rallies have been held in Castlegar, Davis Bay, Kelowna, Prince George, Revelstoke, Toronto, and even New York.
Despite the announcement of a two-year deferral on old-growth logging in the regions — requested by the Huu-ay-aht, Ditidaht, and Pacheedaht First Nations and approved by the provincial government on June 9 — activists say that little has changed.
“Most of the ancient forests are still not protected,” said Carole Tootill, a spokesperson with Rainforest Flying Squad, the grassroots group that started the first blockade to protect old growth last August. “Logging has not stopped. We are losing more irreplaceable old-growth trees every day. With RCMP using aggressive tactics against our blockades, yet more trees are likely to be extracted before the additional, promised deferrals are announced this summer.”
According to the Wilderness Committee, the government’s 2000-hectare deferral only amounts to about 0.15% of what the Old Growth Strategic Review Panel recommended be set aside.
“The deferral announcement gave a lot of people the idea that logging had halted in these areas,” adds Joshua Wright, another RFS spokesperson. “People thought the protests could relax — but that isn’t the case. Big trees are being felled every day.”
The Rainforest Flying Squad has called for immediate moratorium of all old-growth logging across the province. Until then, they say, their blockades will remain in place.