Vancouver Island, BC: Direct Action and Forest Defense Continues in Face of Arrests

Resistance on the ground in so-called British Columbia on Vancouver Island against old-growth logging continues to heat up, as police attempt to remove forest defenders and stop them from joining those on the front-lines. So far, hundreds of arrests have been made, yet people continue to join the blockades and construct shelters and other structures. According to a post from the Fairy Creek Blockade:

It seems like the police are getting irritated by long shifts. Early this morning, their frustration and anger came to a boil. As a tripod sitter tried to change positions with another forest defender, one RCMP officer, Constable Lorde mistook this for an attempt to escape and avoid arrest. Aggressively throwing his door open, he yelled “You motherfucker!” and sprinted toward the descending tripod sitter. The forest defender was tackled, had his wrists tightly cuffed, and was slammed hard against a police vehicle, being cursed and yelled at the entire time.

Replacing the assaulted tripod sitter was a forest defender who returned joy to the camp with her beautiful artistic energy. Stark naked, singing, and performing tai chi atop her tripod, she revitalized the camp and kept spirits high despite the earlier police aggression and poor weather. She was later removed from her tripod without clothing and arrested. We are in awe of her bravery and conviction.

Later in the day, a bus full of non-Indigenous elders approached a police checkpoint at Braden with the goal of supporting forest defenders at Waterfall Camp.

On a road not much wider than the bus itself, police turned the driver away, forcing them to back down the mountain. With the width of the road and the weather conditions, this was terribly dangerous. With no regard for the elders’ safety, the police provided no turn-around options. One of the passengers commented, “It was amazing to me that he (the bus driver) was able to back the bus out that whole way without getting us into an accident!”

Continuing the RCMP’s series of dangerous choices this day, two forest defenders in sleeping dragons were extracted with a backhoe up at Waterfall camp. Again the bucket of this backhoe was within 6 inches of forest defenders’ bodies while they were immobilized.

As you follow our content, we urge you to ask the question: “Where were you when the last of the giants fell?”

Together, we will win this fight.

COME TO CAMP

🌲 Monday Report
Down by Port Renfrew, a group of 18 forest defenders assembled a “bird’s nest” on Pacific Marine Rd at 6am blocking the road near Deering Bridge, preventing police and industry access to 2000 & Waterfall until 10am while allowing public access.#SaveFairyCreek pic.twitter.com/ZiExnPKEFk

— Fairy Creek Blockade (@SaveFairyCreek) June 16, 2021

In an anonymous statement sent to It’s Going Down, the following report wrote:

spring 2021 unceded kwakwaka’wakw territory, northern so called vancouver island, so called british columbia. two surveyed road routes had their flagging tape and other survey markings removed. if cleared and built, they would allow cutting of old growth and second growth forests.

fuck western forest products… and their claims to this land thru the colonial-capitalist state in “tree farm license 6” on northern vancouver island.

this fun, quick, easy action is in solidarity with ongoing kwakwaka’wakw resistance to logging in their territory, in violation of the so called douglas treaties and the sacred land of the kwakwaka’wakw people.

in solidarity with 10+ months of continuous logging blockades in unceded pacheedaht and dididaht territory on the south end of the island, holding strong after 3+ weeks of militarized rcmp invasion! in solidarity with indigenous land defenders who were attacked by white racist western forest products contractors there in early may. klecko for your fierceness and determination!

fuck western forest products.
fuck island forest contractors.
fuck teal jones.
fuck island timberlands.
fuck timberwest.
fuck mosaic forest management.
fuck em all…

in solidarity with the june 2 attack on ledcor (tmx pipeline contractors) offices in toronto. in solidarity with anti-tmx pipeline treesitters in burnaby. and most of all, with the anti-tmx land defenders recently sentenced to jail.

…and a special fuck you to ron tucker from royston, who said this to chek news at a pro-logging rally at mesachie lake on may 30:

“I think there’s another agenda here, I think Canadian resources are basically trying to be shut down as a whole. Doesn’t matter if it’s forest industry, oil and gas,” he added. Tucker said he fears that the North Island forests he works in, are next. “There’s only been a few come up there but we’ve heard that it could be the next area that’s going to be attacked by the same things.”

hey ron, you’re god damn right on all counts, and this one’s for you buddy!

onward, to the barricades, and the unguarded backwoods.

no pasaran.

-some anarchists

Folks on the ground are asking for supporters to come to the blockades and help stop the chainsaws. More info here.