By Canadian Press

RCMP seeks search, access powers at Fairy Creek to safely execute expiring injunction

Sep 17, 2021 | 12:49 PM

NANAIMO, B.C. — The RCMP says it needs more powers to search and exclude people at an old-growth logging protest area on Vancouver Island where about 1,000 arrests have already been made.

A federal government lawyer representing the RCMP told a British Columbia Supreme Court judge the Mounties also need more space to safely enforce a court injunction against protests and blockades in the Fairy Creek area north of Port Renfrew.

Lawyer Donnaree Nygard says she’s making her argument in favour of increased police powers knowing the injunction is set to expire within days and aware Judge Douglas Thompson has said he will consider options to the court order.

British Columbia forest company Teal Cedar Products Ltd. has applied to the court to extend by one year the injunction order against protest blockades.

Arrests have been ongoing in the Fairy Creek area since May, when the RCMP started to enforce an earlier B.C. Supreme Court injunction against blockades erected in several areas near logging sites.

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Thompson asked lawyers arguing for and against a lengthened injunction to consider options other than the extension application because the current situation of protests and arrests is not working.

Thompson says his ruling on the extension will come after it expires on Sept. 26.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2021.

The Canadian Press