Search for missing indigenous loggers protested in BC

PORT-RENFREW, BC Family and friends of a Native American protester who went missing in the woods near a wood block on Vancouver Island for seven weeks dropped out of a logging company’s security on Saturday for obstructing their increasingly furious search.

Bear Henry, a two-spirited 37-year-old who has been protesting against the logging at Fairy Creek since March 2021, went missing on November 27th. Henry’s family and friends fear the worst.

“Bear’s last text message said someone was hitting the side of their pickup truck and that they were scared,” said Bear’s aunt Rose Henry, known to friends as Grandma Losah.

Their van, spray-painted with phrases like “Land Back” and “Fairy Creek forever,” was a target for angry lumberjacks, says Grandma Losah. Bear, she said, had received previous threats.

Saturday was the first day that RCMP protesters formally allowed protesters to search wooden roads where they believed Bear was traveling when they disappeared.

But on Saturday afternoon, Bear’s search team was still denied access by security officers contracted by Teal-Jones, the lumbering company that owns logging rights to land that protesters consider “undead” and is at the heart of the Fairy Creek old-growth demonstrations.

Other protesters say they were threatened by lumberjacks, said Valerie Elliot, the Fairy Creek Old Protest Movement’s communications manager. A container threatened one member of the community with an ax, Elliot said. Two other protesters said they had experienced similar harassment.

“There’s a lot of hatred of individuals on behalf of the logging industry,” said Angela Davidson, a 37-year-old indigenous member of the movement.

Grandma Losah says Bear traveled on the maze of roads from Cowichan Lake to Fairy Creek and planned to take a breather on top of the mountain, but they never showed up.

“You think you can say that when a loved one leaves on a journey, they will come back and then you will be able to see them again,” says Bear’s mother, Eileen Henry. “It was heartbreaking.”

The search for Bear is fraught with mistrust between Bear’s family and the RCMP. Family members say they did not report their disappearance until December 11 due to mistrust in the police.

“We did not think the RCMP would cooperate with us,” says Grandma Losah. “They see us as ground defenders. They do not care about our human side. “

The RCMP has conducted two helicopter searches for Bear over the past five weeks, according to Cpl. David Motley of the Lake Cowichan RCMP.

But Bear’s family feels the police should do more.

Terry Bieman, a Salt Spring Island-based search and rescue operator who supports the search, is questioning how much effort police are putting into searching for missing Indians.

“If a young white girl went missing, you know, you’ll get them, they’re going to be found.”

Sers. Chris Manseau, an RCMP media relations officer, denies racism. “We have a missing person. We do not care what ethnicity they are, with whom they are affiliated, or how they identify themselves. ”

Teal-Jones denies restricting access to search and rescue personnel, spokeswoman Shawn Hall wrote in an email.

The search group on Saturday withdrew Bear’s planned trip from Victoria to Cowichan Lake, over mountain roads and then to Fairy Creek. But once at the Fairy Creek blockade, the team was prevented by security from taking search vehicles to the logging area, despite permission from the RCMP division via satellite phone.

The Fairy Creek protest camp is being scaled down this week due to heavy snow that protesters hope will slow down the logging in the area. “Mother Nature is now helping us protect the trees,” said Charlotte Jones, a Haida mother of a teenager who has been living at the camp since May 2021. Jones hopes the temporary reduction of protesters will encourage a more thorough search for Bear.

Grandma Losah was hopeful for “better communication” with the RCMP after conciliatory talks with Motley paved the way for the protesters’ search on Saturday.

“My ancestors will not allow me to give up,” Grandma Losah said. “No pandemic, closed gates, no climate change is going to stop me from finding my Bear.”