Police say arrests continue at B.C. protests against old-growth logging on Vancouver Island
The Canadian Press | Posted: June 3, 2021 4:35 AM | Last Updated: June 4, 2021
Demonstrators are building structures and chaining themselves to objects make arrests difficult
UPDATE: As of Thursday evening, RCMP say they have arrested 165 people since enforcement of a British Columbia court injunction on southwestern Vancouver Island began.
A total of 158 people have been arrested since RCMP began enforcing a British Columbia court injunction ordering the removal of blockades aimed at preventing old-growth logging on southwestern Vancouver Island, police said Wednesday.
The Mounties say seven people were arrested Wednesday for breaching the injunction after officers found a large group blocking both directions of a forestry road in the Braden Creek area near Port Renfrew.
The injunction is to allow workers with the Teal-Jones Group to resume logging in that area and in the Fairy Creek watershed to the south.
Activists say very little of the best old-growth forest remains in B.C.
They say Fairy Creek is the last unprotected, intact old-growth valley on southern Vancouver Island.
Teal-Jones has said it plans to harvest about 20 hectares at the north ridge of the 1,200-hectare watershed out of 200 available for harvest.
WATCH | Protesters camp out in trees, chain themselves to objects: