Three people have been arrested for mischief for blocking a main artery in Greater Victoria Monday morning to protest old-growth logging.
Members of the group Save Old Growth blocked southbound traffic on Douglas Street at Finlayson Street, near the Denny’s restaurant and Mayfair Shopping Centre.
At 8 a.m., three members of the group were sitting on the road, with more standing on the north side of the intersection.
Traffic was flowing normally again at about 8:25, after the protesters were arrested by Victoria police.
The protesters are demanding the B.C. government stop all old-growth logging in the province, said a member calling herself Phillipa Jay.
“It’s very urgent,” she said. “These old-growth forests are not sustainably logged.”
Jay said she has attended protests at the legislature, signed petitions and written to MLAs and “none of this works.”
She said she understands the frustration of drivers when there are roadblocks, but that it’s imperative to save old-growth forests now, “otherwise the trees will be gone forever.”
On Friday, Forests Minister Katrine Conroy said the British Columbia government has worked with First Nations to defer logging across more than a million hectares of old-growth forests at risk of permanent loss.
Logging of a further 619,000 hectares of old growth has been deferred at the request of First Nations to protect wildlife habitat, at-risk species, salmon populations and cultural practices, Conroy told a news conference.
The minister said over 80 per cent of old-growth forests identified as at risk of irreversible loss are not currently threatened by logging, either because they were deferred, they were already set aside, or they’re not economically viable to harvest.
This is the second round of protests Save Old Growth has held. The group was responsible for staging five blockades in Victoria and Nanaimo in February.
On Friday, six more people joined Save Old Growth’s hunger strike on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, joining a supporter who has not eaten since March 25.
— With a file from The Canadian Press and Pedro Arrais
