Three week reprieve on Fairy Creek injunction hearing

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Fairy Creek blockade activists trying to protect some of the last stands of old-growth forest on southern Vancouver Island have won a three-week reprieve after a judge adjourned an injunction hearing on Thursday.

Court grants three week reprieve

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Power granted a request by the blockade’s legal team for more time to assemble materials necessary for a defence against the injunction.

Forestry company Teal-Jones had sought the injunction to remove the Fairy Creek blockades at various entry points to its Tree Farm Licence (TFL) 46 near the community of Port Renfrew until Sept. 4.

However, Power said it was in the interest of justice to allow the delay, so defendants could better prepare and the court could set aside more time to hear the matter.

Additionally, Power was unconvinced a short delay would be problematic given the blockade started in August 2020, but the forestry company did not apply for the injunction until Feb. 18, 2021.A NEWSLETTER FOR PEOPLE WHO CARE ABOUT THE CLIMATE Email *

“I am not persuaded that I should find urgency or prejudice to the extent that the plaintiff now alleges,” Power said.

“If, as the plaintiffs argued (that) there will be a prolonged civil disobedience campaign after a court order, it is, in my view, all the more important that any order that the court makes be made (based) on a full hearing.”

1,000 year-old yellow cedars

The blockade activists want to save pristine old-growth forest at the headwaters of Fairy Creek with yellow cedars thought to be 1,000 years old, as well as other remaining groves on near Camper Creek, Gordon River, and in the Upper Walbran Valley.

Pacheedaht First Nation elder Bill Jones, one of the defendants named in the Fairy Creek blockade injunction, spoke at a protest rally at the Victoria courthouse on Thursday. Photo by Liam Morgan

Within Pacheedaht traditional territory

Pacheedaht First Nation elder Bill Jones, one of defendants named in the injunction application, says the Fairy Creek valley falls within the nation’s traditional territory and contains bathing pools with spiritual significance that are endangered by clear-cutting.

It was also in the public’s interest to adjourn the hearing, said defence lawyer Patrick Canning.

“I am not persuaded that I should find urgency or prejudice to the extent that the plaintiff now alleges,” B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Power said Thursday in granting the delay.

Demonstrators in solidarity with the Fairy Creek blockade gathered on the Victoria courthouse steps on Thursday, and in various other communities on Vancouver Island prior to the court decision.

Teal Jones

Lawyers representing Teal-Cedar, a division of Teal-Jones, had argued that Power should grant the injunction immediately because a delay would endanger road building in the region necessary before logging could occur later in the spring and summer.

Any further delays due to the blockades would threaten timber harvesting and jobs at its mills, said the company’s lawyer Dean Dalke.

The elected council of the Pacheedaht Nation were also aware of and did not oppose the proposed logging activity in the region, Dalke said.

The request for an adjournment by the defence was to raise issues that wouldn’t, in fact, be a defence to an illegal blockade, he added.

Regardless of whether the defence arguments “would pass muster,” it was important to allot enough time to adequately hear them, Power said.

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Top photo credit: Protesters demonstrated in solidarity with the Fairy Creek blockade at the Victoria law courts on Thursday. Photo by Liam Morgan

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