The echoes are quiet on our side of the continent, yet it is referred to as the largest operation of civil disobedience in Canadian history. For more than a year, in the south of Vancouver Island, in Fairy Creek, Ada’itsx, territory of the Pacheedaht nation, militants from all over Canada, native or not, have occupied the sites exploited by the forestry company Teal. -Jones.
Since August 2020, militants have been digging trenches, building dams, setting up camps. They take turns, over the days, weeks, months. The strategy is as radical as it is peaceful: to stand between the machinery and this ancient rainforest which is home to ancient trees and endangered species.
It is because there is an emergency. A recent independent report on the state of old-growth forests in British Columbia noted that while old-growth forest accounts for nearly a quarter of the province’s forest cover, only 3% of the land is likely to support very large trees. And today, these giants are only found on 2.7% of this 3% fraction.
When we speak of “very large trees”, we have to think of the mythical images of the forests of the Pacific, with their titans rising up to the sky. Douglas firs, Ponderosa pines, majestic cedars. Giants that play a crucial role for biodiversity and the regulation of ecosystems. However, they are also the most coveted specimens by the industry.
In the eyes of scientists and environmental groups, the BC government’s conservation standards are failing. They do not allow the most valuable sites to be spared or encourage the industry to adopt genuinely sustainable strategies. At the rate at which exploitation progresses, it is stressed, these giant forests will disappear.
The Fairy Creek mobilizations were born in reaction to this laissez-faire. When the political will is lacking, when we indulge in the discourse of economic necessity, throwing back to back “the environment” and “the workers” – as if the times did not require, precisely, that we is working on the transformation of environmentally harmful employment sectors – what remains? What remains, if not to offer his body as a last bulwark?
In June, John Horgan’s government announced a postponement of cutting activities at Fairy Creek, but that did not dampen Teal-Jones activities. The activists are there to testify: the trucks come down, loaded with logs, day after day. And since April, they must combine with muscular police interventions, following an injunction obtained by the company.
To date, more than 1,100 people have been arrested. Last summer, activists documented brutal arrests by the RCMP and its tactical response team. Spectacular raids were carried out on the mountain: personal items confiscated, the use of at least surprising force on peaceful activists, accounts of profiling reported by indigenous activists. All in a context of worrying opacity. Journalists present at Fairy Creek during the summer said they had been extraordinarily badly received by the RCMP: no entry, severe escort, damaged and destroyed equipment.
The Canadian Association of Journalists also participated in the challenge to the injunction obtained by Teal-Jones, and was successful. The BC Supreme Court condemned the RCMP’s treatment of the media in Fairy Creek, stating that the control exercised went beyond what is acceptable in a democratic society.
Then, on September 28, the same court refused to renew the injunction, criticizing in passing – once again – the intimidating attitude of the RCMP, this time towards indigenous activists. In the camps at Fairy Creek, the victory was sweet, but short. On October 9, the injunction was renewed, the time of the appeal procedures. We were waiting for the arrests to resume.
On Monday, having just arrived in British Columbia myself, I speak on the phone to Marlene Hale, an Elder from the Wet’suwet’en Nation, living in Victoria to support the mobilization of Fairy Creek. That same morning, the RCMP resumed dismantling the roadblocks with force. She tells me that Bill Jones, the elder Pacheedaht supporting the activists from the very beginning, has been threatened with arrest. “They were ready to handcuff him. »At 81 years old.
The same day, a video captured by journalist Brandi Morin shows the arrest of a young pacheedaht activist. She is violently pulled out of the car in which she barricaded herself. She lies on the ground, unconscious, for long seconds. She is lethargic when handcuffed. The images are disturbing.
At the end of the day Tuesday, the tension rose again when I got ready to take the ferry to Vancouver Island to join Marlene Hale, whom I will accompany to Fairy Creek the next day. We destroyed the base camp and the summit camp. The occupants are stranded on the mountain. There have been violent arrests. It is not clear whether we will be allowed access to the sites where the police interventions are taking place. I’ll tell you more tomorrow.