The RCMP moved in Tuesday morning and arrested five people trying to prevent the logging of old-growth forest on southern Vancouver Island.
“Arrests have been made and people have been escorted from the area,” said RCMP Cpl. Chris Manseau.
There were no reports of violence, said Manseau. However, the arrests of some protesters who had chained themselves to the logging-road gate took a little longer, he said. “That obviously slowed this down, but I don’t think there was any violence at all.”
On Monday, the RCMP began enforcing a court injunction banning protest camps that have been erected in an effort to block logging in the Fairy Creek watershed. The Mounties have set up a checkpoint at the McClure forest service road and are restricting access to the area near Port Renfrew to allow Teal-Jones Cedar Products to begin logging.
The access control point will remain in place, Manseau said Tuesday afternoon.
“Members of the quick response team will stay in the area overnight, but there will be no further enforcement action tonight,” he said. “But it could go ahead again tomorrow.”
Hundreds of activists are estimated to be in the protest camps, trying to stop logging of old-growth trees.
CHEK News reported that tensions were running high from the moment the convoy of police officers arrived at the scene early Monday morning. A large and vocal crowd formed at the Caycuse roadblock. An RCMP helicopter circled overhead.
The court-ordered injunction was read aloud to the protesters. They were given the opportunity to abide by the injunction, leave the area or relocate to an observation area set up by police.
Grandmother Val Embree was the first person to be arrested. “I’m here to protect the old-growth trees and if it takes being arrested, I’ll do that,” she told CHEK News before being led away.
All five people arrested were expected to be charged and released at the end of the day.
Observers at the scene told reporter Norman Galimski that the arrests were peaceful and the police gave repeated warnings before moving in.
“People said it was very chill. No one was getting violent,” he said. “Some protesters told me they were very nervous the night before but now have some hope to save the forest.”
The Rainforest Flying Squad has been blocking logging company Teal-Jones from building a road into its planned cut block in tree forest licence 46 since August 2020. On April 1, the B.C. Supreme Court granted the company’s request for an injunction and police enforcement.
