BC Forestry Company Says Rule of Law Must Apply to Fairy Creek Protests

Attorney Dean Dalke, representing Teal Cedar Products Ltd., told a BC Court of Appeal panel that the company has been the victim of an illegal and highly organized protest campaign to disrupt its legal rights to timber in the area. .

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An attorney for a British Columbia forestry company says he wants the court to uphold the rule of law at a protest site in South Vancouver Island, where more than 1,100 people have been arrested during ongoing logging protests. of old trees.

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Attorney Dean Dalke, representing Teal Cedar Products Ltd., told a BC Court of Appeal panel that the company has been the victim of an illegal and highly organized protest campaign to disrupt its legal rights to timber in the area. .

The company is appealing a decision by a British Columbia Supreme Court judge in September that rejected the company’s request to extend an injunction against the protest blockades for one more year.

However, the court order remains in effect after Judge Sunni Stromberg-Stein granted a temporary stay last month to allow Teal Cedar to appeal the lower court’s decision.

The protesters’ lawyers, known as the Rainforest Flying Squad, are scheduled to present their arguments in court on Tuesday.

Dalke says the lower court judge gave too much weight to the court’s reputation and not enough to uphold the rule of law.