Today, Monday, November 15th, in a Vancouver courtroom, Teal-Cedar began their attempt to reinstate the injunction against and to discredit the forest blockaders at Fairy Creek. Their lawyers submitted almost 1,045 pages of affidavits, mainly from Facebook sites, trying to argue that the blockades endangered the lives of RCMP officers. They quoted the RCMP as saying that the 100 hard block extractions were: “well beyond the classic kind of civil disobedience we have seen in the past.” Teal-Cedar spent 4 hours this morning whining about how unarmed, peaceful and vulnerable people were harming heavily armed RCMP, flying in helicopters and/or using pepper spray, violence, threats of violence and running people over in ATV’s. WARNING: The following anecdote could be triggering for some readers.
When Suck Me Off guy (or” Hurricane Bill” as nicknamed by the RCMP) strolled up to the bridge at LandBack Camp on the morning of August 25th, all of the forest defenders were grossed out. Turns out he’d been wearing that shirt for weeks.
photo: Kelly Tatham @kellytatham on Instagram
The Liason Team officer got flustered when someone complained. He immediately understood that the shirt wasn’t okay but he repeatedly lied; claiming he didn’t know who Suck Me Off guy was or what he was doing there. Eventually he admitted he worked with the RCMP and that he’d now been told not to wear the shirt again. Quote, “My boss got super pissed at his boss.” When @shebites_media questioned RCMP Spokesperson Chris Manseau, he played it off as a joke. Land defender @okimawiskwew is on record as to how “Hurricane Bill” harassed, threatened, and brutalized them and their kin — and still, the RCMP brought him back, day after day.” This one example of RCMP intimidation will not be described in the courtroom but is a reminder of what the blockaders have faced since early August. At this new appeal hearing, Teal-Cedar and the Attorney General speak for the RCMP, who cannot legally be cross-examined in a court of law.
Today, we see unprecedented rains, winds, landslides and flooding in BC; could these events have anything to do with clear-cutting mountain slopes? The United Steelworkers Union complains about job losses as a smear campaign against the paltry deferrals announcements and decades long forest conservation efforts. Clear-cutting Old-Growth forests continues unabated because old trees are worth 10 times as much as smaller plantation trees. One feller-buncher replaces six jobs and 35% of the trees they cut down are shipped off shore to Asia.
A century of industrial logging has caught up with us. Who will take responsibility for this mess? Your average citizen will! One week ago, the Last Stand For Forests folks created a fundraiser asking for one million dollars for legal costs. In one week we have raised over $500,00.00. Please donate what you can to our legal fund: <>. Thanks so much.
