A BC Supreme Court judge overturned last week’s decision to end the Teal Cedar (Teal-Jones Group) injunction at Fairy Creek. Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein agreed to hear the logging company’s appeal on November 15, and she also reinstated the injunction until then. Now, forest defenders will be subjected to the same old special operations RCMP unit known as the C-IRG. In Justice Douglas Thompson’s September 28 decision, he disagreed with police misconduct, which included assaults resulting in severe injuries, pepper spraying people not blocking roads, unlawful destruction of personal effects, improper constraints on freedom of the press, illegally expansive exclusion zones and wearing of the banned ‘Thin Blue Line’ badge, among other misconduct.
Public opposition to clearcut logging of ancient forests continues. Canopy Planet released a new petition, with more than 200 signatories including William Shatner, Greta Thunberg, Jane Goodall and others. On Tuesday, October 12, a letter signed by more than 200 doctors and nurses from across BC will be delivered to Premier Horgan.
Teal-Jones is logging the last remnants of BC’s old growth; since enforcement began in the area, more than 113 hectares have been logged and 216 more hectares are still on the chopping block across tree farm license 46. The Rainforest Flying Squad and other groups are trying to save a forest so small; about half the size of Vancouver’s Stanley Park. The economic rights of Teal-Jones must not supersede the importance of protecting the last of these rare and majestic forests. This volunteer-driven, grassroots, non-violent direct action movement is committed to protecting the last stands of globally significant ancient temperate rainforest in British Columbia. The Rainforest Flying Squad, Last Stand for Forests, and other like-minded organizations stand in solidarity with Elder Bill Jones and others of the Pacheedaht Nation in the protection of the ancient forest of their ancestral territory. www.laststandforforests.com
