Except from my #documentary interview about #SaveOldGrowth in #FairyCreek on #VancouverIsland

From The Last Stand #DocFilm

Great News! NDP will move to protect Fairy Creek
The newly signed Cooperation and Responsible Government Accord between the BC NDP and BC Greens reads: "8.b) Pending the resolution of existing legal proceedings and community negotiations, and in partnership with the Ditidaht and Pacheedaht First Nations, the Government will move forward to ensure permanent protection of the Fairy Creek Watershed." #FairyCreek #ancientforests #VancouverIsland

#RCMP was ‘unreasonable’ when setting up exclusion zones around Fairy Creek protest
By Leanne Sanders
Sep 11, 2024

The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP - #CRCC says that the RCMP was unreasonable in setting up broad #ExclusionZones and checkpoints while enforcing a civil #injunction covering the #FairyCreek area in #BritishColumbia, home to #OldGrowth #forests and a #protest led by people trying to save them.

“In its review, the CRCC found that the broad exclusion zones and checkpoints used by members of the RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group #CIRG were unreasonable,” said the report released on Wednesday. “The review determined that the RCMP’s demand to search the complainant at a checkpoint on a public road was unfounded, and his arrest, after refusing to agree to the search, was groundless.”

C-IRG is a low-profile RCMP group tasked with responding to protests and other public order events about resource based #industrial projects like #logging and #pipeline construction.

https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/civilian-complaints-commission-releases-final-report-crcc

This makes my blood boil!
RCMP used third-party spies at #FairyCreek documents show
Police at Fairy Creek. Photo: Jimmy Thomson / Capital Daily
An invoice obtained by Canada's National Observer shows that the officer leading the RCMP C-IRG program signed off on paying roughly $10K to Human-i Intelligence Services. That payment was for an “online intelligence report” on old-growth blockades and surrounding protest activity—presumably including online activity that did not violate the physical injunction zone. Human-i is led by Julie Jones, a retired police officer who has written a book on investigation and appears on the reality TV show Hunted.
The invoice was obtained by Jimmy Thomson, who was managing editor of Capital Daily during the bulk of the Fairy Creek protests. Capital Daily had obtained a copy of the report in question, but was blocked from publishingany of its contents by a mid-2022 BC Supreme Court decision in favour of the RCMP. Those contents remain blocked. But the invoice, obtained via federal freedom-of-information request, publicly confirms that the report exists.
Read the story from Canada's National Observer here.
C-IRG (Community-Industry Response Group), the RCMP force focused on BC-based resource-extraction protests, has since been renamed CRU-BC. It remains under a federal investigation launched in 2023 after years of allegations of rights violations, excessive force, surveillance, and collaboration with industry and private security.
The latest docs resurface what has been a long line of concerns about RCMP conduct in enforcing the injunction against obstructing forestry in the South Island watershed. Media outlets, including Capital Daily, won a court challenge against the extensive “exclusion zones” by which police limited media documentation of the site and arrests.
In Aug. 2021, RCMP officers pepper-sprayed a crowd; reporting by Capital Daily showed that the RCMP then misled the public about why.
Ultimately, many charges against activists were thrown out due to the court finding that RCMP read the injunction to them properly.
#CorporateInterests #Capitalism

The contents of the intelligence report has been blocked from publication by a ban imposed by the B.C. Supreme Court since June 2022. But an invoice obtained through a federal Access to Information request reveals its existence #RCMP #spying #FairyCreek https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/08/09/news/rcmp-hired-private-spies-monitor-fairy-creek-activists

A miscarriage of justice: Angela Davidson, also known as Rainbow Eyes, was convicted in January of seven counts of criminal contempt for breaching a court injunction and later her bail conditions. #FairyCreek #OldGrowth https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/04/24/news/green-deputy-leader-sentenced-60-days-fairy-creek-old-growth-protests

Guardian for the Da’naxda’xw/Awaetlala First Nation Rainbow Eyes is our guest in the first of our 100 Sisters on Security series. #G100 #climatejustice #forestdefender #fairycreek #oldgrowth #Indigenous #FirstNations

https://alisonywlam.wixsite.com/g100-security/post/100-sisters-on-security-indigenous-rights-and-forest-defence

Logging of British Columbia's #OldGrowthForests increased -- despite government's assurances since overhaul to forestry practices 3 years ago.

#OldGrowthLogging increased by approximately 13% between 2020-2021.

Summer 2023: 400+ #BCwildfires/day plus #BCdrought of 60+% of water basins at highest severity level. Need biodiversity w/ old growth forests to support ecosystems, slow #ClimateChange.

#FairyCreek

Photo by TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance, via CBC News

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/old-growth-logging-british-columbia-how-much-is-harvested-each-year-1.6987777

#ThickTrunkTuesday Eden Grove near #FairyCreek

#wildwednesdays Near #FairyCreek

#Adaitsx #FairyCreek #ClimateAction #ClimateJustice #AbolishCIRG https://ricochet.media/en/3981/brandi-morin-from-behind-police-lines-at-fairy-creek-as-rcmp-raid-a-new-indigenous-led-blockade

#ForestProtectors Arrested at #FairyCreek

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 16, 2023

"Three forest protectors were arrested on Tuesday protecting the old-growth forests west of Victoria, as Canada continues to target #NativePeople with police operatives protecting the interest of destructive industries. The police ops are #BritishColumbia's C-IRG, the Community #Industry Response Group.

"Mourning the invasion of the #MilitarizedPolice squad who arrested the #ForestDefenders, who were his guests, #Pacheedaht #FirstNation Elder Bill Jones said, 'We are at the end times of our great forests.'

"Abolish C-IRG said, 'Due to the increasing amount of #indigenous-led anti-resource extraction movements in British Columbia, the Community-Industry Response Group was born. C-IRG is unique to British Columbia. They are militarized, have no budget limit, and the officers get paid handsomely to force #pipelines, #mines, #dams, and #logging through unceded #IndigenousTerritories, without consent. This is just another extension of the #RCMP’s original task- to remove and separate people from the land and enforce #ColonialRule. They do not keep us safe, they protect #capital."

Background: Back to Fairy Creek

"The last time the world was watching Fairy Creek, we witnessed the largest act of #CivilDisobedience in #CanadianHistory. Well over 1,000 Indigenous and non-Indigenous forest defenders were arrested by the RCMP over months of tense standoffs in 2021 as #activists sought to halt the logging of rare #AncientTrees.

"The courts hammered that movement, with charges and bail conditions keeping many away, and the tussle in the trees went dormant for most of the last two years.

"Until now.

"A new blockade, led by #IndigenousYouth and supported by non-Indigenous allies, has just been erected on a key bridge crossing an arterial logging road. The RCMP's specialized tactical team that responds to land defence actions is present and surveilling the camp. A raid could come any day, and having #media on the ground is of crucial importance to keep tabs on police and document the latest developments as land defenders seek to protect their unceded territories from old-growth logging."

Full article and more information:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/08/forest-protectors-raided-at-fairy-creek.html