Activists trying to prevent old-growth logging on southern Vancouver Island are calling for reinforcements at blockades after they say a road builder passed one of their last lines of defence.
Kathy Code, a spokeswoman for the Rainforest Flying Squad, said about 10 RCMP officers in plainclothes arrived at a logging-road camp known as Waterfall, near Port Renfrew, at about 4:30 a.m. Friday, clearing the way for industry to move through.
Code said those on the ground told her a road grader has moved in to carve a road into a planned cut-block.
A public relations consultant for the Teal-Jones Group, which has government approval to log in the blockaded area, said the company would not comment Friday.
Activists have been in the area since August trying to prevent the company from building a road into its planned cut-block. They’ve spread to several areas in a maze of logging roads near Port Renfrew and Lake Cowichan, determined to prevent the falling of old-growth trees.
Saul Arbess, a member of the Rainforest Flying Squad, said there is one more blockade at the edge of the planned road beyond the Waterfall camp that industry needs to get through to reach Fairy Creek. On Friday afternoon, he was awaiting a report from that camp, known as Ridge. There is no cellphone service in the area, making it difficult for those on the ground to relay messages to others.
“We don’t know what the status is, but I don’t know that the grader got beyond them,” he said.
Sgt. Chris Manseau, a media relations officer for the B.C. RCMP, said officers routinely patrol the logging roads to assess the obstacles facing police as they enforce a court injunction to clear the way for industry. He said he believes that’s what officers were doing early Friday morning at the Waterfall camp, and he was not aware of any arrests at that time, although people were arrested later in the day.
“They’ll go to kind of anticipate where the best place for enforcement is for the day to see what they’re going to encounter, what type of equipment they’re going to need. It’s more of a scouting-type thing, just for awareness,” he said.
All officers making arrests are in uniform, Manseau said.
As of Thursday, the RCMP had made 165 arrests, including at least nine people who have been arrested more than once.
In a statement, the RCMP stressed police are impartial in the conflict.
“The Supreme Court of British Columbia granted an injunction order, which are mandatory directions for the parties and the police. The RCMP is not at liberty to choose which law to follow, nor do we have the option of refusing to enforce Court Orders and injunctions.”
Activists were cautiously optimistic Friday that their efforts were paying off after Katrine Conroy, minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, suggested in an opinion piece published by the Vancouver Sun that logging in the area was on hold.
“Pacheedaht, industry tenure holders, and the province have agreed that no harvesting will happen in Fairy Creek while the Pacheedaht develop their own stewardship plan,” Conroy wrote.
A ministry spokesperson clarified that “there is no active logging or logging permits in the Fairy Creek Watershed. The closest logging is approximately 20 km from the Fairy Creek Watershed.”
While Fairy Creek has become a catchall term for the blockades, activists are protecting a vast area that goes beyond the Fairy Creek watershed.
American actor Mark Ruffalo recently lent his voice to the cause, with a tweet urging people to sign a petition demanding the end of old-growth logging in B.C.
Join me in supporting the #FairyCreekBlockade where Indigenous Peoples & activists are stopping the logging of #OldGrowth forests in British Columbia. Sign the petition to tell @jjhorgan & @bcndp to protect these ancient forests w/ 2000 years old trees! https://t.co/CkLT7L5sqc
— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) June 3, 2021
“Join me in supporting the #FairyCreekBlockade where Indigenous Peoples & activists are stopping the logging of #OldGrowth forests in British Columbia,” he wrote on Twitter.
More than 60,000 people have signed the online petition.
