BC Ancient Tree Logging Protesters Enter As Company Appeals End Of Court Order

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VICTORIA – All parties to the logging dispute deepened Wednesday after a British Columbia Supreme Court judge refused to issue an injunction against protest blockades in South Vancouver Island.

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Forestry company Teal Cedar Products Ltd. said in a statement that it intends to appeal Judge Douglas Thompson’s decision on Tuesday.

Luke Wallace, a spokesman for the Rainforest Flying Squad protest group, said supporters will stay at lockdown camps in Fairy Creek, a remote area north of Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island.

“Teal-Jones still has every intention of cutting down all the remaining old forest in that valley and the surrounding valleys, so we will be present on that land until reality changes,” Wallace said in an interview. “Until those forests are no longer under threat from deforestation.”

The British Columbia government said in a statement that it would not comment on matters that could still be before the courts.

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Thompson’s ruling immediately lifted the court order that had been in effect since April. He said that the execution of the court order by the RCMP led to a serious and substantial violation of civil liberties.

Teal Cedar and the RCMP asked the court to spend more than its “reputational capital” by granting the extension that would keep protesters at bay who may or may not be violating the court order, the judge said in his decision.

There have been more than 1,000 arrests in Fairy Creek since the original warrant went into effect.

Teal-Jones said it will continue to legally search its 46 tree farm license area and report any suspected illegal activity to the RCMP.

Teal-Jones was disappointed by the British Columbia Supreme Court’s decision Tuesday, she said in a statement announcing the appeal.

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“To do the opposite would be to allow anarchy to reign over civil society and for disinformation campaigns to prevail over the facts.”

The company also said that if it cannot continue its work, it could be forced to lay off employees and close plants.

In his decision, Thompson urged the British Columbia government to consider more options to address the dispute beyond the court order, including using criminal or provincial laws or even changing the laws.

The BC Attorney General’s Ministry said in the statement that it was reviewing the decision.

Provincial Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau said she will pressure the New Democracy government to deliver on its promises to resolve the logging problems when the legislature resumes sessions next week.

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“Absolutely, we will ask this government once again why they are not taking their responsibility seriously, particularly now that a British Columbia Supreme Court justice has made it very clear that it is the government’s job to address this,” he said.

The province earlier this year approved a request by three First Nations from Vancouver Island to temporarily defer the felling of ancient trees on some 2,000 hectares in the Fairy Creek and central Walbran areas, but protests continued.

The Rainforest Flying Squad said primary forests outside deferred areas are still at risk of being cut down.

“We are still in Fairy Creek and the surrounding primary forests and we are protecting those forests until the government puts them under permanent protection,” Wallace said.

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At the previous hearing in Nanaimo on this month’s injunction request, lawyers representing the protesters said that people from all walks of life with environmental concerns were being treated as terrorists.

Thompson’s ruling said the RCMP acted with “reasonable force” for much of the warrant period, but some video evidence presented showed “disturbing lapses in reasonable judgment.”

He cites video evidence showing police removing COVID-19 masks worn by protesters before pepper-spraying them.

The president of the National Police Federation, Brian Sauve, said in a statement that the officers who enforced the court order against the blockades were “the thin blue line between order and chaos.”