On Vancouver Island, near the Swartz Bay ferry terminal that connects the island to the mainland, about a dozen protesters took to the highway, preventing people from making their way. A video circulating on social media shows some drivers getting out of their vehicles and approaching protesters demanding to move. Police say a man, who was climbing a flight of stairs, was taken to hospital by ambulance. RCMP Cpl. Alex Bérubé said police were investigating the circumstances that led to the fall of the stairs.
14 arrested, 1 taken to hospital after logging protests Monday morning
More than a dozen people were arrested on June 13 after protesters fighting to save old forests closed during rush hour in many large areas of the province. Bérubé said five protesters had been arrested, three of whom were being held pending a bail hearing and two of whom had been released on bail to appear in court later. He said it was too early to comment on what charges they might face. According to Canadian Penal Codeit is illegal to block or obstruct a freeway. Bérubé said police were investigating both protesters and protesters. “The RCMP will not forgive any illegal actions taken to circumvent the blockades,” he said.
Protests in Kato Sterea
In Vancouver, police say pedestrians traveling over the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge were delayed about 15 minutes Monday morning as police worked quickly to remove protesters who had blocked the bridge using a car and were in the process of locked on the steering wheel. Five people were arrested during the protest. Sgt. Steve Addison said the Vancouver Police Department was aware that the protesters were planning to go out on Monday and appointed additional police officers to respond. “Having seen so many protests in Vancouver, like hundreds last year alone … we are quite familiar with how these groups work,” he said. Protesters block the Massey Tunnel on June 13, 2022. (Save Old Growth) Another blockade was created in Richmond, BC, outside the Massey Tunnel, a major thoroughfare for people moving around the city. Four people have been arrested and the Richmond RCMP says it is prosecuting all four.
“The unrest will continue”
Save Old Growth has been making headlines since August 2020, when protesters moved near the Fairy Creek catchment area to protect the dense old forest from logging. Sophia Papp, coordinator of Save Old Growth, said that while the efforts at Fairy Creek had attracted attention, they did not impose the issue on all British Colombians as the blocking of major highways does. “Taking action in a bourgeois sphere or on the street … was a very divisive tactic,” he said. “But people talk about us in a way that I don’t think Fairy Creek, for better or worse, did.” The goal, Papp said, is for the government to pass legislation to prevent logging companies from cutting down old forests altogether. “The disturbances will continue until we can do that,” he said. The Minister of Forests of BC Katrine Conroy said in a statement that her government has taken steps to protect these forests and claimed that they have prevented the felling of nearly 17,000 square kilometers of old forest in BC. The old development in BC. has been protected, postponed or considered uneconomical for harvesting. Conroy said that while the province respects the right to peaceful protest, what the protesters did on Monday was the “wrong approach”. But Papp said that’s the only way to get attention. “We tried other tactics,” he said. “We have marched, we have demanded, we have gone on hunger strikes; it has never once attracted the attention of the media like this. In fact, I’m scared most of the time when I’m on the road. “But I do not know what else to do.”
