BC Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of Protesters Trying To Block Old-Growth Logging @ Fairy Creek

[hatrack]

A provincial court in Canada has refused to extend an injunction against protesters demonstrating against old-growth logging, ruling that police conduct has been so troubling that to extend the order would place the court’s own reputation at risk. For nearly six months, activists have set up blockades to prevent the logging of old growth forests in the Fairy Creek watershed on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island. More than 1,100 people have been arrested as part of the largest act of civil disobedience in recent Canadian history.

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“[The] methods of enforcement of the court’s order have led to serious and substantial infringement of civil liberties, including impairment of the freedom of the press to a marked degree,” Justice Douglas Thompson wrote in his judgment released late Tuesday. The judge acknowledged that the behavior of protesters has become “more extreme over time”– such as locking their bodies to the logging road – but officers with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have responded by beating, dragging and pepper-spraying demonstrators.

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Thompson also criticized a number of officers wearing “thin blue line” patches, obscuring their faces, not wearing name badges – and for their attempts to bar media from reporting on the long-running protests.

“All of this has been done in the name of enforcing this court’s order, adding to the already substantial risk to the court’s reputation whenever an injunction pulls the court into this type of dispute between citizens and the government,” he wrote. He also said media access to the area has been “improperly constrained” by police.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/29/canada-logging-protests-vancouver-island-judge

[Bev54]

1. This is really about the police, not whether the protesters are right in what they are doing

The protesters, many who are not from the area, and I really question who is propping them up, in the name of causing chaos. They put out completely false information about logging in Fairy Creek and the areas being logged. BC is one of the best managed areas in the world on their forest management. They have billions of acres of old growth forest that is protected and they have some that will be cut. What people do not understand is that not all old growth forest is large majestic trees, some are smaller and dying so they should be logged. The protesters keep saying they are logging the watershed, they are not close to the watershed and it is a very small area. When I was young we protested on Vancouver Island to end clear cut logging and changes were made over the years. This protest is just bullshit.

[hatrack]

2. "Billions of acres of old growth forest"? What are you talking about?

All of BC is 364,764 square miles, which translates to 233,000,000 acres and change.

[Bev54]

3. Sorry I meant millions not billions

approx 33 million acres of old growth and most of it is protected.