Journalists and the BC Civil Liberties
Association are challenging the police actions
violating the rights of hundreds of people at
blockades near Port Renfrew on Vancouver
Island. Blockades have been set up on access
roads to Tree Forest Licence (TFL) 46 where
the owner of the licence, the logging company
Teal-Jones, is planning to clear-cut an area
containing old growth trees in the Fairy Creek
area. The people who are protecting the old
growth forests accuse the NDP government led
by Premier John Horgan of refusing to follow
his own election promise.
In 2019 the government commissioned a report
on the management of old growth forests in BC
which made 14 recommendations, one of which is
that the government should "defer development
in old growth forests where ecosystems are at
very high and near-term risk of irreversible
biodiversity loss." The report was made public
on September 11, 2020. Ten days later Premier
Horgan called a snap election based on the
self-serving calculation that the time was
ripe for his party to secure a majority. In a
deliberate attempt to woo voters concerned
about sustainable forestry, he pledged to
implement the 14 recommendations, indicating
that his government would, indeed, defer
development of old growth forests.[1] On one
occasion he stated that "Many of our old
growth stands are worth more standing up than
they ever could be cut down, especially if we
take a holistic approach that acknowledges
broader benefits for communities and the
environment."
The Fairy Creek blockades, coordinated by the
Rainforest Flying Squad, were set up last
August. The promises to protect the old growth
have not been kept. As the months passed with
no action from the government to stop the
company from proceeding, the blockades have
been strengthened. On April 1 Teal-Jones'
court application for an injunction to remove
the blockades was granted and on May 17 the
RCMP began arresting people, including
journalists and legal observers.
The RCMP have
set up "exclusion zones" even though, as the
BC Civil Liberties Association pointed out in
an open letter to Solicitor General Mike
Farnworth, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki, and
RCMP Deputy Commissioner Jennifer Strachan,
"there is nothing in the injunction that
prohibits movement in the area or peaceful
protest." As well, instead of telling people
engaged in the blockades that they can leave
or be arrested, police in many cases have
arrested people without warning, including
legal observers and journalists. In an
incident on May 25 outside Caycuse Camp an
observer reported that a contingent of 50 to
60 police started arresting people without
warning and that "They were very clearly
pushing people out of the way to specifically
grab people in legal observer vests and
Indigenous youth." Nine Indigenous youth who
are a part of the Braided Warriors group
were arrested. Many people who were arrested
that day weren't planning on being arrested
but no one was allowed to leave once the
arrests, which lasted up to 11 hours, began to
take place. The arrest of journalists and
legal observes is clearly intended to hide
police actions from Canadians so as to
continue to act with impunity. This is what
Horgan calls "law and order." His "law and
order" violates civil or Charter
rights as well as Nuu-chah-nulth law and
the human right to be.
The Canadian Association of Journalists, in a
statement issued May 26, announced that on May
25 a coalition which includes the CAJ,
Ricochet Media, The Narwhal, Capital Daily,
Canada's National Observer, the Aboriginal
Peoples Television Network (APTN), Canadian
Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), the
Discourse and IndigiNews, had sent a formal
letter to the RCMP. Included in their demands
are:
- Immediately end the practice of applying
exclusion zones to journalists so that they
are able to record video and sound, conduct
interviews and take photographs at a distance
"sufficient to avoid any accidental
interference with officers performing their
duties."
- Refrain from using physical obstructions
that block the view or prevent the media from
capturing audio. Do not hold up tarps around
arrests, place loud generators between
journalists and arrests or position officers
to block cameras.
- Allow journalists to move freely on site,
not be corralled or forced to move as a group
or with a police escort.
- Equipment of journalists must not be seized
or otherwise interfered with.
- Immediately cease arresting or detaining
journalists within injunction zones for
asserting their right to document events.
The people at the camps continue to receive
support from communities all over Vancouver
Island and throughout the province, through
actions at MLA's offices, street protests,
material support and convoys that visit to
bolster the lines. On May 25 over 75 seniors
car-pooled from Victoria to show their
support.
On May 28 more than 800 people, organized
by youth from Our Earth, Our Future marched
from Premier Horgan's constituency office to
the local RCMP detachment in support of the
Indigenous youth and elders and all the land
defenders at Fairy Creek. Outside the RCMP
building they painted a mural on the road
with the message "RCMP Off Stolen Land."
A large portion of the towering old growth
forests in British Columbia have been cut
down. The provincial government has done
nothing to stop the forest companies from
pushing ahead with this activity. Far from it,
the government has facilitated clear-cutting,
despite all sorts of promises that were made
to protect the old growth forests, and has
authorized the RCMP to arrest protesters.
Since obtaining
a majority government in the election, despite
promises made during the election to defer
development in old growth forests, Horgan has
refused to stop the cutting of old growth
trees, leading to many protests across the
province. Environmental groups say it's the
same old "talk and log" tactic of previous
governments. Well over 100,000 people have
signed petitions calling for the protection of
old growth forests, including an e-petition
presented to the House of Commons by Paul
Manly, Green MP for Nanaimo-Ladysmith. One of
several current online petitions to the
provincial government now has over 94,000
names, increasing daily. For the last few
months, especially since April 1, there have
been rallies and demonstrations throughout the
province in support of the blockades. On May
29 hundreds of people passed through an RCMP
blockade to access and reclaim one of the
camps.
Some of the more than 75 seniors who
car-pooled two hours from Victoria to support
the blockades on May 25, 2021.
Besides breaking an election promise Premier
Horgan is justifying the use of the courts and
police to secure Teal-Jones' access to log the
old growth with the same excuse his government
used to justify unleashing the RCMP against
the Wet'suwet'en land defenders in January of
2020. According to him, it is a matter of 'law
and order.' He justifies his government's
inaction on the 14 recommendations on the
grounds that it takes time "to get it right on
balancing jobs and the environment."
What is at stake here, the underlying
problem, is that forestry policy is decided by
the monopolies and implemented by successive
governments, whether Liberal or NDP. Workers,
Indigenous nations, forestry communities and
the people of the province as a whole have no
say whatsoever but are expected to, year after
year, stand back and watch the forest being
mowed down in clear-cuts and silently accept
the consequences including damage to
watersheds, wildlife and the stability of
mountainsides, all for the narrow interests
and profits of the big forest companies.
As the forest
resource is depleted, the forest companies
have abandoned any notion of value-added
manufacturing and, with few exceptions, have
turned their operations on Vancouver Island
into harvesting and shipping raw logs to
foreign buyers. After profiting for years from
BC forests, many companies have moved their
manufacturing operations to the U.S. and
elsewhere. Teal-Jones itself has built a
planer mill in Sumas, Washington and purchased
sawmills in Oklahoma and Virginia.
The fight for sustainable forestry in BC and
a new direction for the economy based on
upholding the hereditary rights of Indigenous
nations, meeting the needs of the people,
creating jobs, and protecting the environment
has been ongoing for decades. Civil
disobedience actions such as blockades are
actions of resistance to industry and
government dictate, an expression of the fact
that the government is not doing its duty to
uphold the people's right to be and the people
have to do it themselves. To criminalize the
voice of the people is an act of cowardice
because it is not based on the duty of
government to create and represent a public
opinion but on the imperialist edict that
might makes right. Once governments prove
themselves incapable of sorting out
differences on a peaceful basis and resort to
brute force, it is a sure sign that the people
have no alternative but to persist in securing
their right to have a say in the matters that
affect them, in what happens to the forest
resource and how to organize the economy so
that the hereditary rights of the Indigenous
peoples and the claims of the forestry
communities for a livelihood and the
requirements of Mother Earth are served
by governments, not sacrificed to serve narrow
private aims.
On May 25th (I believe, although days are a
blur), I was wrongfully detained by the RCMP
District Liaison Team (DLT) Squad sent in to
Nuu-chah-nulth territory to enforce an alleged
injunction. I have not read this injunction
nor has it been read to me anywhere on the hahoulthli
(territory). I was detained for six hours
before being released at the Lake Cowichan
detachment. Approximately 40 people were
arrested on Ditidaht hahoulthli (all but four
present for a vigil being held roadside for
our nisma/land)
allegedly to enforce the injunction in
accordance with colonial law. I am safe. I am
in good spirits. I am ready to dedicate my
endless love and iisaak (respect for all) to
this struggle for Nuu-chah-nulth sovereignty
and liberation. Through my understanding of
both Nuu-chah-nulth law and colonial law, I
have been able to bear witness to and
understand the gross breach of
constitutionally protected Charter rights,
human rights, and Nuu-chah-nulth rights by the
DLT RCMP squad. I am supporting this struggle
because our livelihoods, our spirits and our
ability to be Quuas (person/native person)
is at risk. When our nisma (land) is under attack
by colonial forces, many of us (especially our
young Quuas)
are called to this work. We are carrying on
the work of those who came before us. We are
asserting our rights and sovereignty with the
utmost
iisaak (respect for all) and
understanding of hishuk ma cawak (all is
connected, everything is one). I am committed
to uu-ath-luk
(taking care of all) on our coast. I am
committed to not only speaking our laws, but
living them. Our laws are a way of life. They
are instructions for how to be human, how to
be Quuas.
I stand with our Pacheedaht and Ditidaht
relatives because that is our way. We stand up
for one another. We take care of one another.
We also have to take care of those employed by
industry. We are not forgetting about our
families in forestry. Forestry may feed your
family at present, but we need a sustainable
way to be able to take care of you all for
generations to come. We are fighting for a way
to coexist. We are fighting for a way out of
the conditions of colonialism imposed on us
all. We are fighting for you, not against you
as a human being. When one of our nations or
any of our people are under attack, we all
feel the longing to stand with our families on
the coast. It is our way. It is in our DNA as
Quuas.
I am not a leader. I am not a protester. I am
not just a journalist or an academic ndn. I am
not just a mixed tupkuk mutt. I am not just a
youth. I am not just a carrier of immense
privilege for the life I have had. I am all. I
am unapologetically whole. I am just the Aya
you all have gotten to know over the course of
my 24 years. I will use my strengths, skills
and power to do all that I can to make our
dreams of freedom from colonial oppression
real. Because it will come true. Parts of a
decolonized and healthy, happy Quuas
world already exists. It lives in our lands, teechmas
(hearts), thlimaqstis
(spirits), songs, stories and more.
I will never stop speaking the truth. That is
our law as Potlatching peoples. I will never
stop working towards Nuu-chah-nulth liberation
and sovereignty. I will not rest (although,
much rest is needed in between highly intense
days of arrest and Quuas business) until we are
all free. None of us are free until all of us
are free.
My spirit will never break because I stand on
the truth. I stand on our laws. I stand on
everyone who came before me and all of those
older and younger than me who have taught me
how to be human.
The BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) has
written to the provincial government and RCMP
Commissioner condemning the arbitrary and
unlawful RCMP Exclusion Zone in unceded Ditidaht
territory. The RCMP have established two
checkpoints and roadblocks along the McClure
Main and Caycuse Main roads near the Fairy Creek
blockade against old-growth logging.
In an open letter to Solicitor General Mike
Farnworth, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki and
Deputy Commissioner Jennifer Strachan, the BCCLA
notes that the RCMP's actions are overbroad in
scope and constitute an inconsistent, arbitrary,
and illegal exercise of police discretion to
block members of the public, including legal
observers and the media, from accessing the
area. The roadblocks also cut off an important
emergency route to the Ditidaht First Nation
reserve near Nitinat Lake.
According to
BCCLA Staff Counsel Veronica Martisius, "The
BCCLA is deeply disturbed by the RCMP exclusion
zone near the Fairy Creek blockades on unceded
Ditidaht territory. There is nothing in the
injunction that prohibits movement in the area
or peaceful protest. The RCMP, by their actions,
are showing blatant disregard for Indigenous
rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms. This situation is alarmingly
reminiscent of what occurred in Wet'suwet'en
territories last year."
Legal Observers Victoria have documented a
number of RCMP practices designed to prevent the
public from witnessing and documenting police
actions. The organization has documented RCMP
officers using tarps and other coverings to
visually conceal arrests from media and legal
observers. Legal Observers Victoria have also
documented RCMP officers attempting to corral
and contain media and legal observers in
designated areas where they are unable to
document RCMP enforcement. Several journalists
and legal observers have been arrested and
forcibly removed from the area for attempting to
document police actions.
The BCCLA and Legal Observers Victoria demand
that the RCMP uphold and respect individuals'
right to engage in peaceful protest and not
criminalize Indigenous people who are exercising
their constitutionally-protected inherent
rights. The organizations call on the provincial
government and RCMP Commissioner to immediately
put an end to RCMP attempts to prohibit Ditidaht
people, media, legal observers, and members of
the public from accessing the area, including
for witnessing and documenting police behavior
and reporting on a story of national public
interest.
Media Statements
Media statements
below represent the views of each individual or
organization.
"The RCMP's repeated attempts to shroud their
enforcement operations at Fairy Creek in secrecy
raised serious public safety concerns from the
very beginning. Now, as arrests become
increasingly violent and physical, we are seeing
exactly why the RCMP is so committed to
preventing the public from witnessing their
activities. This is the reason that Legal
Observers exist -- to create community safety
through police accountability. The RCMP's
continued hostility towards observers and press
is a blatant attempt to avoid taking
accountability for their role in ongoing
colonial violence towards land defenders,
Indigenous communities, and the land itself." -- Keith Cherry,
Organizer with Legal Observers Victoria
"As reporters, we need unmediated access to
situations of public concern. I myself have been
turned away at an RCMP roadblock in
contravention of established precedents in
Canadian law, while my reporter has been
corralled and shepherded around with other media
instead of being allowed free access to the site
of the arrests. This tight control is
unacceptable in a time-sensitive situation where
the safety and respect for the rights of all
participants is at stake. The RCMP is taking
advantage of the remoteness of the location to
discourage real-time efforts to cover what's
happening. Nobody is fooled when public-facing
press releases say one thing while on-the-ground
officers do another." -- Jimmy Thomson, Capital Daily
"Journalism cannot happen when journalists are
excluded from the area of events they are meant
to cover. That should be a simple and
uncontroversial statement. Yet, over eight years
and at least five situations across the country,
police have sought to exclude journalists
through the use of broad exclusion zones. The
courts, in the Brake precedent, and the RCMP's
own oversight body, the Civilian Review and
Complaints Commission, have both found it to be
unlawful to use these restrictions to interfere
with journalists. When, usually under threat of
legal action, the RCMP do allow access, they
impose conditions reminiscent of authoritarian
regimes: media containment zones, chaperones,
and arresting or detaining journalists for the
crime of trying to do their job. This is not
press freedom. We stand with industry groups
like the Canadian Association of Journalists,
and international press freedom groups like the
Committee to Protect Journalists, in denouncing
this overreach of policing power to interfere
with the right of journalists to do their job,
and most importantly, the right of the public to
be well informed on issues of clear public
interest." --
Ethan Cox, Ricochet Media
Media Contacts
Keith Cherry, Legal Observers Victoria:
keithccherry@gmail.com
Noah Ross, Legal counsel for the Rainforest
Flying Squad: noah@noahross.ca
xʷ is xʷ čaa (Kati George Jim):
Kgeorgejim@gmail.com
Veronica Martisius, Staff Counsel (Policy),
BCCLA: veronica@bccla.og
(xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam),
Sḵwx̱wϊ7mesh (Squamish) and Stσ:lō and
Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh
(Tsleil-Waututh)/Vancouver, B.C. -- May 21,
2021. Photos: Fairy Creek Blockade)
Vancouver Public Sector Workers'
Stand Against Concessions
Local 20378 of the Public
Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), BC
division, organized a car rally on Sunday, May
23 to support members who work on Granville
Island and their bargaining team as they head
into more negotiations for a new contract with
their employer Canada Mortgage and Housing
Corporation (CMHC). Granville Island is a
popular destination in Vancouver for tourists
and the public.
"The management team of
CMHC has put unacceptable concessions on the
table that would undermine a collective
agreement that members have fought hard for
over the last 40 years," one of the organizers
of the rally explained, and added, "They are
seeking concessions from some of their lowest
paid workers." The Local 20378 team is
defending the terms of the present collective
agreement and opposing the unjust and
unacceptable concessions proposed by the CMHC
Granville Island management. The PSAC team is
seeking to improve the terms of the next
settlement. This is part and parcel of the
overall struggle, they say, to stop the rise
of "precarious, part-time, non-standard, and
temporary work in Canada."
Representatives of
different locals of PSAC, along with allies
from other unions including the BC Government
and Service Employees' Union, MoveUP and the
BC Nurses' Union gathered with their cars and
bicycles in the parking lot at Fir and 2nd
avenue at 12:15, covering them with placards
and flags. The line of cars then wended its
way noisily through the streets of the
Granville Island area, three times, honking.
Workers on the island who are members of PSAC,
as well as others, came out to greet the
convoy with smiles and raised fists. The
convoy then reconvened in good spirits at Fir
and 2nd to take stock and plan future events.
Included in the unacceptable concessions tabled
by Granville Island CMHC management, that are
being opposed by PSAC BC Local 20378 are:
1. Reducing, by four hours, the period during
which workers receive shift premiums each day.
In the face of objections by the bargaining
team, management revised their demand to apply
only to new hires, which would divide the union
and force new workers to work for less.
2. Deleting language in the contract that
ensures that if vacation leave and designated
paid holidays are improved for non-union
corporate staff, the same would apply to
unionized staff.
3. Increasing the hiring of casual workers,
with no limits on numbers, for any jobs and in
any departments. The union maintains that work
at Granville Island should be done by a
full-time, secure workforce.
"Industrial Island" (Granville Island) was
created in 1916 by the federal government as an
artificial island and a base for increasing
industrial development in the False Creek area
of Vancouver. The existing sand bars there had
been used for fishing, seafood gathering and
other subsistence activities by the Salish
people, who all had to leave the area by 1899.
The Vancouver Heritage Foundation states that
"the CPR, government and local businessmen
fought over the sandbars and water rights until
1916 when it was transferred to the National
Harbour Commission (NHC)." The NHC built a
seawall around it, filled it in with dredge from
False Creek, put in road and railway access,
thus creating 40 acres of leasable land for
factories and mills. By the 1930's, 1200 workers
were employed at 40 companies manufacturing
fibre, rope, chain, and materials for logging,
mining and shipping. Industrial output declined
during the Depression years, throwing workers
into unemployment. During the Second World War,
the island (renamed Granville Island) was
"reinvigorated" by the manufacture of defense
equipment, employing many women. By the 1970's,
however, industry was again in decline, and the
island was described as "an industrial
wasteland."
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation:
Administrator for the Financial Oligarchy
A "reimagining" of Granville Island in the
1970's turned the "industrial wasteland" into a
public and tourist destination through the
construction of buildings for things like public
markets, shops, artisans and a fine arts school.
In tandem with this impetus to construction, the
party in power in the federal government handed
over management of Granville Island in 1972 to
the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
(CMHC) -- a Crown corporation that, like the
NHC, is run as a business based on the profit
motive.
Nowadays, 200 members of PSAC BC Local 20378 do
essential work on Granville Island, ranging from
janitorial and maintenance to administrative
work, which keeps the island functioning. The
CMHC -- despite its self-description as a
benevolent corporation (making housing
"available to all" through its role as guarantor
of mortgages) is anything but. Its attitude
toward its employees is the same as the attitude
of the financial oligarchy whose interests it
and the political party in power represent. In
that capitalist worldview, workers are merely a
cost of doing business and are expendable. Thus
the constant drive to lower wages and bring in
more casual workers.
The Union notes
that Granville Island has been protected from
COVID-related economic losses by federal
emergency funding ($16.7 million in 2020; $22
million proposed in 2021). Thus there is no
justification, they say, for the demand by CMHC
for concessions and the taking away of benefits
and salaries from low wage essential workers.
They note that the CMHC General Manager of
Granville Island stated that the anti-worker
proposals were made "not out of any economic
necessity." This would appear to confirm an
article that appeared in The Globe &
Mail (May 11) reporting that many firms
who received federal funding "weren't struggling
at all in the lean months of 2020."
COVID-related funds, then, are yet another
example of one more scheme to pay the rich at
the expense of the working class.
The day to day struggle of workers like the
members of Local 20378 of PSAC is a fight to
stand their ground against the relentless
onslaught of the monopoly capitalist class and
its representatives. Every such fight, however
large or small, illuminates for everyone how the
economic system of advanced capitalism works,
and it exposes the economic and political
powers-that-be for who they are. It strengthens
the working class and people as a whole because
it shows that resistance is possible. From a
focus on the economic struggle to hold our
ground, a broader scope of the struggle is
starting to happen where the working class and
its allies fight for a world that is
human-centered, not capitalist-centered.
(To access articles
individually click on the black headline.)
The RCMP have
set up "exclusion zones" even though, as the
BC Civil Liberties Association pointed out in
an open letter to Solicitor General Mike
Farnworth, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki, and
RCMP Deputy Commissioner Jennifer Strachan,
"there is nothing in the injunction that
prohibits movement in the area or peaceful
protest." As well, instead of telling people
engaged in the blockades that they can leave
or be arrested, police in many cases have
arrested people without warning, including
legal observers and journalists. In an
incident on May 25 outside Caycuse Camp an
observer reported that a contingent of 50 to
60 police started arresting people without
warning and that "They were very clearly
pushing people out of the way to specifically
grab people in legal observer vests and
Indigenous youth." Nine Indigenous youth who
are a part of the Braided Warriors group
were arrested. Many people who were arrested
that day weren't planning on being arrested
but no one was allowed to leave once the
arrests, which lasted up to 11 hours, began to
take place. The arrest of journalists and
legal observes is clearly intended to hide
police actions from Canadians so as to
continue to act with impunity. This is what
Horgan calls "law and order." His "law and
order" violates civil or Charter
rights as well as Nuu-chah-nulth law and
the human right to be.
Since obtaining
a majority government in the election, despite
promises made during the election to defer
development in old growth forests, Horgan has
refused to stop the cutting of old growth
trees, leading to many protests across the
province. Environmental groups say it's the
same old "talk and log" tactic of previous
governments. Well over 100,000 people have
signed petitions calling for the protection of
old growth forests, including an e-petition
presented to the House of Commons by Paul
Manly, Green MP for Nanaimo-Ladysmith. One of
several current online petitions to the
provincial government now has over 94,000
names, increasing daily. For the last few
months, especially since April 1, there have
been rallies and demonstrations throughout the
province in support of the blockades. On May
29 hundreds of people passed through an RCMP
blockade to access and reclaim one of the
camps. 
As the forest
resource is depleted, the forest companies
have abandoned any notion of value-added
manufacturing and, with few exceptions, have
turned their operations on Vancouver Island
into harvesting and shipping raw logs to
foreign buyers. After profiting for years from
BC forests, many companies have moved their
manufacturing operations to the U.S. and
elsewhere. Teal-Jones itself has built a
planer mill in Sumas, Washington and purchased
sawmills in Oklahoma and Virginia.
According to
BCCLA Staff Counsel Veronica Martisius, "The
BCCLA is deeply disturbed by the RCMP exclusion
zone near the Fairy Creek blockades on unceded
Ditidaht territory. There is nothing in the
injunction that prohibits movement in the area
or peaceful protest. The RCMP, by their actions,
are showing blatant disregard for Indigenous
rights and the 
The Union notes
that Granville Island has been protected from
COVID-related economic losses by federal
emergency funding ($16.7 million in 2020; $22
million proposed in 2021). Thus there is no
justification, they say, for the demand by CMHC
for concessions and the taking away of benefits
and salaries from low wage essential workers.
They note that the CMHC General Manager of
Granville Island stated that the anti-worker
proposals were made "not out of any economic
necessity." This would appear to confirm an
article that appeared in