RCMP back at B.C. logging blockades after high court confirmed protester's acquittal

Mounties are back enforcing an injunction against anti-logging protesters on Vancouver Island less than a week after the Supreme Court of Canada confirmed the acquittal of a protester at the same site because police failed to fully read out a court order.

RCMP said in a statement that there have been numerous violations of the court-ordered injunction granted to Teal Cedar Products in April of 2021, so their officers have returned to the Fairy Creek Watershed near Lake Cowichan.

The Fairy Creek protests began after logging permits were granted in 2020, allowing Teal Cedar Products to cut timber, including old-growth trees, in areas including the Fairy Creek watershed northeast of Port Renfrew, B.C.

Police say there are reports that Teal Cedar's employees are being harassed, equipment has been vandalized, and the company has been prevented from harvesting timber.

The RCMP say in a subsequent news release on Tuesday that they spoke with protesters who were blocking a bridge and when they failed to obey the injunction or leave, three were arrested for breaching the court's order.

One officer was allegedly assaulted by a suspect who took off into the woods, and police say a report to the Crown will be forwarded for consideration of criminal charges.

Confrontations between police and protesters have led to more than 1,100 arrests since 2021, but when a court tossed  one case because police didn't read the entire injunction, dozens more acquittals followed. B.C.'s prosecution service dropped 146 cases after the high court's decision last Thursday.

A statement from the B.C. Prosecution Service on Thursday said the cases were dropped because their ability to succeed was "placed in doubt" by a ruling that acquitted protester Ryan Henderson in February.

The service's announcement came after the Supreme Court of Canada said on the same day it would not hear the Crown's appeal of the Henderson decision, marking the end of the legal road for prosecutors trying to keep the cases against protesters alive.

The ruling is also a victory for demonstrators who said the officers' script did not pass the legal test.

Henderson was cleared of contempt in February when a B.C. Supreme Court justice found RCMP officers read only a shortened version of an injunction to hundreds of protesters, including Henderson, who were arrested at the Fairy Creek logging blockade on southern Vancouver Island.

The court ruled the officers' shortened script didn't include enough information to give protesters enough "actual knowledge'' to understand the order they were accused of breaking and prove the demonstrators were "wilfully blind'' to those terms.