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Arrests continue at logging blockades
Page 6— Ha-Shilth-Sa—June 3, 2021 Arrests continue at the Caycuse blockade
By June, 151 had been arrested at blockades near Fairy Creek, with nine who were taken away more than once
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By Melissa Renwick Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Port Renfrew, BC - Dozens of police offi cers descended upon the Caycuse camp near the Fairy Creek watershed, enforcing a court injunction against blockades preventing Teal-Jones from accessing several stands of old-growth forest. As of June 1, there have been 151 arrests made since the RCMP began enforcing the injunction on Tuesday, May 18. The Rainforest Flying Squad, an oldgrowth activist group, have been stationed at the blockades near Port Renfrew since last August to protect one of B.C.’s last remaining watersheds untouched by industrial logging. Despite the police presence, they are continuing to stand their ground. After the Fairy Creek watershed area along the McClure Forest Service Road was cleared of protestors on Wednesday, May 19 and deemed “closed” by the RCMP, several activists returned to the enforcement area and attached themselves to structures. Police eff orts to remove the protestors resumed the following morning and seven arrests were made, according to an RCMP statement. Six of the arrests were for breaching the injunction and one person was escorted out of the blockade with no recommended charges. “The RCMP are also recommending that two individuals be charged with obstruction, two for possession of stolen property and one for obstruction and assaulting a police offi cer,” read the statement. Media was not permitted access beyond the “exclusion zone” to document the arrests until afternoon on May 20, owing to the RCMP’s “resource availability,” said RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Chris Manseau. The Rainforest Flying Squad accused the RCMP of assaulting an Indigenous woman that morning. “The violence enacted by the RCMP and industry directly suppresses Indigenous sovereignty, and the cultural and spiritual connection of Indigenous people to their
Photo by Melissa Renwick A protestor is arrested at the Caycuse old-growth logging blockade established by the Rainforest Flying Squad, near Port Renfrew, on May 19.
land,” a forest protector, who asked not to be identifi ed, told the media. This is “genocide and ecocide,” she added. Meanwhile, the Pacheedaht First Nation have spoken in opposition of the blockades. The Fairy Creek watershed is within Pacheedaht territory. “We do not welcome or support unsolicited involvement or interference by others in our territory,” reads the letter, which is signed by Hereditary Chief Frank Queesto Jones and Chief Councillor Jeff Jones. Manseau said it’s too early to draw any conclusions about confrontations with police. “The RCMP uses a carefully measured response to civil disobedience and unlawful acts,” he said. “We will use only level of force necessary to ensure the safety of all citizens, enforce laws and to maintain peace, order and security.” Unless there is an ongoing investigation, more information will be shared publicly as it becomes available, he added. Eventually, media was escorted past the Caycuse blockade, which had already been cleared of protestors, to a site where one woman was suspended in a makeshift wooden structure high up in the trees on May 20. “I’m doing this because it’s the last stand for our ancient forests,” the woman, who identifi ed herself as Pony, shouted.
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“This is all a tactic to slow down the destruction of the forest.” The Caycuse blockade is the only camp where the injunction has been enforced thus far. Members of the Rainforest Flying Squad widely speculate it’s because there are felled trees on the ground in the area from logging operations that were underway before the blockade was established. It is also believed to be the place that Teal-Jones could resume work most quickly. Teal-Jones and the RCMP did not respond in time for publication.
RCMP contends that public safety is driving its control over an area where logging opposition has intensifi ed
By Eric Plummer Ha-Shilth-Sa Editor
Port Renfrew, BC - As the arrest toll grows at blockades around the Fairy Creek watershed, some wonder if police enforcement in the area is going beyond stipulations of a court order, while interfering with civil liberties. RCMP have so far arrested over 150 people in the area near Port Renfrew, including nine who have been taken away more than once. In mid May police moved into the area to enforce a court injunction against protestors who have been blocking forestry access into the Fairy Creek watershed since August, which is considered one of Vancouver Island’s few remaining old growth valleys untouched by industrial logging. On April 1 the B.C. Supreme Court gave an injunction to Teal-Cedar Products, prohibiting the interference of its harvesting or access to the watershed, an order which lasts until Sept. 26. The injunction covers a large area, extending from north of Port Renfrew to the Nitinaht River, covering both Pacheedaht and Ditidaht territory. When the order was issued eight blockades were identifi ed, resistance held by the Rainforest Flying Squad, a loosely affi liated group of old-growth activists, for over nine months. “The purpose is to prevent a further escalation of eff orts to block access contrary to the Supreme Court order, and to allow the RCMP to be accountable for the safety of all persons accessing this area given the remoteness and conditions,” reads an RCMP press release. The court order makes multiple mentions prohibiting the “obstructing, impeding or otherwise interfering” with Teal-Cedar Products’ forestry operations in the area. While the injunction does not bar access to the area, it does give RCMP authority to arrest anyone “who the police have reasonable and probable grounds to believe is contravening or has contravened any provision of this order.” As a result, entry into the injunction area has been tightly controlled, with checkpoints and a temporary access control area along the McClure Forest Service Road, which is located north of the Fairy Creek watershed. Since then protestors have been given the option to “abide by the terms of the injunction and leave the area, or relocate to the designated protest/ observation area set up by the enforcement team, or face arrest,” according to an RCMP release. Sgt. Chris Manseau of RCMP media relations said the police’s major concern is maintaining public safety. “A lot of these protestors have put themselves in situations that are extremely dangerous, climbing very high trees, chaining themselves to large objects that are unstable and staying out in the bush without proper food or medication for quite some time,” he said. “We understand that people in the area have the right to protest if they’re going to do it lawfully and safely. We just want to make sure that nobody gets injured in any of this.” While a growing audience is looking to Fairy Creek as an indication of how old growth is being managed in the province, journalists appear to be depending on police to be taken to places where they can observe and report on developments. The Ha-Shilth-Sa relied on police escort to be taken into the enforcement area, once waiting for hours to get a closer look at
Photos by Melissa Renwick Dozens of RCMP members encircled the Cayuse old-growth logging blockade to arrest protestors on May 19.
~ RCMP press release
the unfolding scene. Manseau said the escorts are needed to ensure public safety while industrial logging operations are underway. “I’ve been inviting journalists where enforcement is planned to take place,” he said. “There has been the odd time when somebody wasn’t allowed, however we have tried to remedy that as best we can with the resources that we have. There is no intention to not allow journalists access.” Such limits on freedom of the press go against the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, says Brent Jolly, president of the Canadian Association of Journalists. “Journalists have the right to report information freely. When you have an injunction like this that prevents people from doing that, I would argue that’s limitation of freedom of the press.” Jolly believes enforcement would be diff erent in less remote setting with more people observing. “It seems like if this were going on in Stanley Park, or somewhere, the police reaction would be far diff erent than what we’re seeing here,” said Jolly. “In this case, I really don’t see how restricting access in the way that they have is fair or reasonable. This is not a combat zone where journalists need to be sure that they’re off to the side.” Manseau admits that is has been a challenge to verify who is a journalist working for a reputable media outlet. He said the RCMP is exploring an accreditation process similar to what the BC Supreme Court uses to allow reporters into the courtroom. “Unfortunately, we have come across a couple of times so far where people have claimed to be journalists and then have been escorted in, granted access, and then have joined the protest,” said Manseau. In a letter to Minister of Public Safety Mike Farnworth and top RCMP offi cials, the BC Civil Liberties Association argues that restricting access to the enforcement area, which is on Crown land, is unconstitutional according to Canadian law. “This situation is alarmingly reminiscent of what occurred in Wet’suwet’en territories last year,” wrote the association. The BCCLA also referenced the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which states that “Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources, which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or required.” Pacheedaht elder Bill Jones didn’t feel that these rights were being upheld when he was denied access into the Fairy Creek valley in mid May. Although the Pacheedaht First Nation has formally opposed the presence of protestors in the area, Jones is among his community’s most vocal supporters of the old-growth movement. “The road that they’re on that the police are blocking is actually a public thoroughfare,” said Jones. “I couldn’t proceed past them. They blocked me off and sent us all away. So that means that I’m aff ronted and denied of my rights and freedoms of access to my own territory.”
A movement against harvesting old growth trees is being compared to the Clayoquot Sound protests of 20 years ago
By Melissa Renwick Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Port Renfrew, BC - After over a decade of documenting B.C.’s last remaining oldgrowth ecosystems, TJ Watt said he hadn’t come across anything quite like the grove of red cedars hidden in the upper reaches of the Caycuse watershed, near Port Renfrew. “It was truthfully one of the most stunning old-growth forests I’ve been in,” said the co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “The sheer volume of giant cedars was mind-blowing – every direction you looked was another 10 to 12-foot-wide ancient cedar that could be 800 years old, or older.” When he returned later that year in 2020, only their stumps remained. The now clear-cut grove is located in Tree Farm License 46, which is held by forestry company Teal-Jones. Watt said he never saw another soul out there until recently, as anti-logging protests have been underway since last August. “It’s such an obscure spot at the end of the road,” he said. “These places are so special and you wish the world could see them, but how do you get everybody out there? Now, it’s packed.”
The Rainforest Flying Squad, an oldgrowth activist group, have been stationed at various blockades throughout the Caycuse and Fairy Creek watersheds since August to prevent Teal-Jones from accessing what they consider the last remaining old-growth forests untouched by industrial logging. On May 17, RCMP moved into the area to enforce a B.C. Supreme Court injunction that ruled their blockades are illegal. As of June 1, 151 people have been arrested. The Fairy Creek watershed sits within Pacheedaht First Nation’s traditional territory. In a statement signed by Pacheedaht Hereditary Chief Frank Queesto Jones and Elected Chief Jeff Jones, the nation said it’s concerned about the increasing polarization over forestry activities in their territory. “Pacheedaht has always harvested and managed our forestry resources, including old-growth cedar, for cultural, ceremonial, domestic and economic purposes,” read the statement released April 12. “All parties need to respect that it is up to Pacheedaht people to determine how our forestry resources will be used. We do not welcome or support unsolicited involvement or interference by others in our territory, including third-party activism.” Garry Merkel, B.C.’s old-growth strategic review panel expert and member of the Tahltan Nation, said that, until recently, First Nations communities have been “sitting on the outside looking in.” “Government recently made a move to reallocate tenure and get First Nations much more involved in actually owning tenure,” he said. “The problem is, we are very oldgrowth dependent right now in our forest sector.” It’s estimated that B.C. will need oldgrowth logging for another 5 to 20 years, depending on the area, to make the transition to second growth, explained Merkel. “We just don’t have enough yet to make the sector transition,” he said. “That means that many First Nations have come into [the industry] at a time where there is this high dependence on the last remaining oldgrowth.” And because many First Nations tenures are dependent on old-growth logging, Merkel said “they are caught in the middle
Photos by Melissa Renwick (From left to right) Patrick Jones, Aya Clappis and Victor Peter stand together at the Fairy Creek blockade headquarters, near Port Renfrew. Protestors continue to show their support by joining the Rainforest Flying Squad at various camps stationed in the Caycuse and Fairy Creek watersheds. “It makes me feel like not everybody is just in it for greed,” Jones said. “They see the beauty in nature and how it should be preserved.” Below, an excavator drives along a logging road in the Caycuse watershed. of this thing, with their own communities and with other people.” Many members of the Pacheedaht First Nation have rallied in support of the protests, including elder Bill Jones, who said he’s fi ghting for “the last of it.” “It will be all gone if [Teal-Jones] is given free reign,” he said. Jones’ nephew, Patrick, joined protestors in the Fairy Creek watershed in May. The 23-year-old said First Nations’ self-governance is based on a colonial idea, which entails chief and council making the major decisions for everybody else, thereby seeing the biggest benefi ts. Last summer, B.C.’s provincial government appointed foresters Merkel and Al Gorley as an independent panel to consult with thousands of British Columbians about how to manage old-growth forests. They outlined 14 recommendations that the B.C. NDP promised to implement during the provincial election campaign last fall. One of the recommendations was the immediate deferral of harvesting from ecosystems that are at “very high and near-term risk of irreversible biodiversity loss.” Over a year later, the province has not made it clear how they plan to implement the deferral, or what constitutes high-risk. There still isn’t a good defi nition of oldgrowth, explained Merkel. In other words, what constitutes old-growth is fl uid based on who you’re talking to. In hindsight, Merkel said he wished they wrote the recommendations more “stringently.” “But you know, hindsight is always 2020,” he said. “Nobody’s gone through this scale of transformation in this province – ever.” An unsustainable practice?
Instead of talking about old-growth forests, Merkel suggested that we should be speaking about old-growth ecosystems. For thousands of years, plants, fungi and waterways have primed the earth to allow cedar trees to grow up upwards of 10-feet in diameter, he said. If harvested delicately so that the ecosystem’s attributes, structure and function remain intact, you can have very little eff ect on the ecosystem, he said. “But the standard systems that we use are primarily clear-cut,” he said. “Sometimes, we even burn [the clear-cuts] afterwards or get rid of all the slash. That sets the ecosystem back potentially thousands of years – minimally, hundreds and hundreds [of years]. It took all of that time for those ecosystems to become what they are with the factors that shaped them in the past. The factors that they’re going to face in the next hundreds, if not thousands of years are going to be very diff erent with things like
Photos by Melissa Renwick Aya Clappis and Victor Peter stand together at the Fairy Creek blockade headquarters, near ew. Protestors continue to show their support by joining the Rainforest Flying Squad at various camps stationed in eed,” Jones said. “They see the oad in the Caycuse watershed. “But the standard systems that we use are -cut,” he said. “Sometimes, -cuts] afterwards That sets the ecosystem back potentially thousands of , hundreds and hundreds [of years]. It took all of that time for those ecosystems to become what they are with the factors that shaped them in the past. The factors that they’re going to face in the next hundreds, if not thousands of years are erent with things like climate change and other human impacts. So, to think they’re renewable is simply not true. All those old ecosystems are not renewable.” Resource Works, a non-profi t research and advocacy organization focused on promoting responsible resource development in B.C., released a new report aimed at responding to the “rhetoric coming out of Fairy Creek.” “The fact is, forest management in B.C. is not in crisis – far from it,” read the report. “Rather, there is a ‘crisis’ of misinformation.” Old forest is defi ned as being 250 years or older and makes up 860,000 hectares of Vancouver Island. Of that, 520,000 hectares, or 62 per cent, is protected, read the report. “While we welcome the coming paradigm shift in forest management that has been signalled by the provincial government, residents of B.C. can share our confi dence that this is being managed in a proper professional and consultative context,” said Stewart Muir, co-author of the report and Resource Works executive director. Conversely, recent mapping done by the Wilderness Committee indicates that old-growth logging approvals have gone up 43 per cent since the B.C. government received the old-growth review recommendations in 2020. “The government is not keeping its word,” said Torrance Coste, Wilderness Committee campaign director. “We’re calling on the government to defer old-growth logging and provide support for communities that currently derive benefi ts from old-growth … to just say that we need to change the way we’re managing old-growth, but not actually changing anything on the ground, leads these companies to go and get it while they can.” The Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development said it does not feel the Wilderness Committee’s analysis accurately refl ects what is happening in B.C.’s old-growth forests. “The fact is, 10 million hectares of old-growth is already protected and since coming into offi ce our government has protected hundreds of thousands more,” the ministry said in a release. “We are committed to work with the committee to better understand their results and to provide a true account of our old-growth forest.”
Soaring lumber prices
Soaring lumber prices in B.C. and across Canada have only added to the tension. As of May 21, a SPF (spruce, pine and fi r) two-by-four cost $1,640 per thousand board feet, while the annual average in 2019 was $372, according to the ministry. “The price for lumber is just off the charts,” said B.C. premier John Horgan during a media conference on March 17. “We still have a signifi cant amount of work to do in the forest industry.” Horgan said the province needs to move from high-volume harvesting and focus on the long term. “These prices will encourage companies to continue to harvest at unsustainable rates,” he said. “Perhaps to catch on to these extraordinary prices.” To prevent access to an old-growth grove in the Gordon River Valley, the Rainforest Flying Squad erected the Eden Camp, near Port Renfrew. There are no roads or cutting permits currently issued in the Eden Grove area and harvesting is not permitted, as it is a wildlife habitat area for Northern Goshawk, according to the ministry. “[Eden Gove] is one of the best of the last unprotected valley-bottom old-growth forests in that region,” said Watt. “The grove itself is not under imminent threat … although the area has been surveyed for logging.” The grove has become a fl ash-point because “people are saying, ‘When is enough enough?’” explained Watt. “We’re down to such low-digit numbers of how much of that productive old-growth forest remains, that when the government kicks the can down the road – another year, another two years – industry takes advantage of that and races in to cut the best of what’s left,” he said. In a statement, Teal-Jones vice president Gerry Kotze said the company’s plans at Fairy Creek have been “mischaracterized.” Most of the watershed is unavailable for logging within Teal-Jones’ tenure, he added. “We are planning to harvest only a small area, up at the head of the watershed well away from Fairy Lake and the San Juan River,” Kotze said.
2,000 gather in protest
The anti-logging protests on southern Vancouver Island have been likened to the War in the Woods, when around 12,000 people participated in anti-logging blockades to prevent forestry company Macmillan Bloedel from clear-cutting in the Clayoquot Sound. It came to a head in 1993, when 300 people were arrested and became one of the largest acts of mass civil disobedience in Canadian history. In 2000, Clayoquot Sound was designated as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation Chief Councillor Moses Martin, who was also the elected chief during the War in the Woods, said it’s an entirely diff erent situation. “In my own case, I had the support of the whole region,” said Martin. “Not just us as Tla-o-qui-aht, but the municipality of Tofi no.” For Martin, the loss of trees on Meares Island meant the loss of the watershed, which Tofi no draws its drinking water from. “That’s so important to all of us that live in this part of the world,” he said. Despite continued RCMP enforcement, the Fairy Creek protests have shown no sign of slowing down. Last weekend, the Rainforest Flying Squad reported that over 2,000 people gathered within the watershed to support the anti-logging blockades. British Columbia was built on logging and is “part of who we are at our core – our cultural being as people,” said Merkel. But as societal values shift, he said “confl ict is inevitable.” “I think our expectations have risen in terms of what we think is possible,” he said. Just like the protests, Watt continues to preserve old-growth ecosystems through photographs because often, “they disappear without anyone really knowing they existed,” he said. The Caycuse watershed is just one example of what’s playing out across the province, he added. “People have taken it upon themselves to literally stand in the way,” said Watt. “If the government was to follow the oldgrowth review panel’s report as it was laid out, there should be immediate deferrals in those most high-risk areas while you fi gure out the plan for the future of old-growth forests – not after the fact. If they don’t exist, you can’t do anything about them.” Patrick Jones
Aya Clappis
