When 17 members of the group Last Stand West Kootenay filed into a Nelson courtroom in July 2022, along with supporters, they expected a judge to hear their case and make a decision.
But they were wrong. They left the courtroom an hour later in a legal limbo that still exists to this day.
In April of that year they had set up a camp at a logging road at Salisbury Creek near the small community of Argenta, north of Nelson, to protest timber company Cooper Creek CedarB次元官网网址檚 commencement of logging of the area known as the Argenta-Johnsons Landing Face.
The RCMP arrested them on May 17, 2022, for violating a two-year-old civil court injunction that directed them and B次元官网网址減ersons unknownB次元官网网址� not to block the logging road.
In court last summer, the group thought the few who were actually blocking the road would be able to state their case against the logging and what they said were violent RCMP arrest tactics.
Those were not blocking the road but who were arrested anyway would also have an opportunity to state that fact to the judge.
It was not that simple.
As soon as the proceeding opened, the companyB次元官网网址檚 lawyer told the judge that his client intended to apply to the court to have the B.C. prosecution service charge the protesters with criminal contempt of court.
Up to this point, the case was a civil matter between two opposing parties: the protesters and the company. Switching the case to criminal law would mean the Crown prosecutor versus the protesters who would be accused of a criminal offence.
That application to the court would take some time to prepare, the companyB次元官网网址檚 lawyer said, so everyone went home, and the company continued logging the contested area.
Cooper Creek Cedar never followed through on its application for a criminal contempt charge. But theoretically it could still do so.
This means a protester can be arrested but never have their day in court while the logging goes ahead.
Cooper Creek Cedar did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
Veteran civil rights lawyer Leo McGrady of Vancouver told the Nelson Star that to have the Crown take over the conduct of civil contempt proceedings and then treat them as criminal matters has become a common response to environmental protests.
In such situations, McGrady said, B次元官网网址渁 logging or mining company (seeks to) use its resources to intimidate people who are simply trying to save our environment. In these scenarios even if the company is unsuccessful in obtaining a conviction for criminal contempt, or even civil contempt, they often will have succeeded in intimidating some of the protesters.B次元官网网址�
And this was indeed the effect, says Megan Beatty, one of the 17 arrested. She said she was intentionally standing on the road and expected to get arrested. But many others, not standing on the road, had no such expectation and were arrested anyway.
B次元官网网址淭hey had their lives overturned by this, basically,B次元官网网址� she said.
Beatty said she was willing to be arrested because of her commitment to protection of old growth and to new logging practices that take climate change into account.
B次元官网网址淚 have protested and tried to make my voice heard in all the legal ways and the destruction of the environment has actually accelerated,B次元官网网址� she says, adding that the Argenta-Johnsons Landing Face has been contentious for decades B次元官网网址渁nd no progress was ever made. It makes the decision for direct action very simple for me.B次元官网网址�
Later that summer, the company filed an additional legal proceeding against the group.
It asked the court to order that Last Stand West Kootenay (LSWK) must provide the company with the social media information of its members including contact information provided at time of registration, and IP addresses of the last 300 logins and logouts of several individual Facebook and Instagram accounts. The company also asked for similar information from the domain registry company GoDaddy and the fundraising platform ConnectionPoint.
The companyB次元官网网址檚 stated rationale was that LSWK had set up social media platforms that directed and coached the public to blockade the Salisbury Creek forest road and encouraged the public to support it.
This was a shock to LSWK members.
B次元官网网址淚t was scary to think that I can be standing up there and protesting, standing up for something that I believe in, and that theyB次元官网网址檙e going to attempt to take all my information,B次元官网网址� said Matt Perry, one of the people who were arrested.
The companyB次元官网网址檚 application came before Justice Lindsay Lyster on Sept. 23, 2022, and on March 27 of this year she ruled that B次元官网网址渋t would not be in the interests of justiceB次元官网网址� to grant the order because that would B次元官网网址渞equire the third parties to disclose information about LSWK that would have a chilling effect on LSWK and others engaging in expressive and associational activities in support of their political and social aims.B次元官网网址�
And it did have a chilling effect, Beatty said.
B次元官网网址淚t makes you think twice about sharing things on your own personal social media,B次元官网网址� she said. B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檝e had to kind of pause and think about what we can put out there. It was possibly the cause of some people needing to step back and take time and sort of assess what they could do going forward.B次元官网网址�
Beatty said the uncertainty generated by these two court actions B次元官网网址� one of them eventually rejected by a judge and other still hanging in limbo B次元官网网址� has been demoralizing.
B次元官网网址淚t was quite devastating and and itB次元官网网址檚 definitely set a cloud of uncertainty. A lot of people are going through some pretty tough times right now and struggling with the way the world is, and that definitely hasnB次元官网网址檛 made things better.B次元官网网址�
LysterB次元官网网址檚 decision can be found at .
B次元官网网址淭he mere threat of having oneB次元官网网址檚 social media placed in the hands of a hostile mining or logging company is a frightening prospect for the average person,B次元官网网址� McGrady said, adding that there is an extremely low chance a court would agree to it.
B次元官网网址淐anadian courts have repeatedly held that the right to protest lies at the very core of the guarantee of freedom of expression,B次元官网网址� he said.
Perry says these court actions, which he refers to as B次元官网网址渆scalations,B次元官网网址� have motivated some LSWK supporters and discouraged others.
B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 defeated a lot of people, and itB次元官网网址檚 also empowered and made other people want to do more. But thereB次元官网网址檚 confusion there. Confusion about how to make a stand. How do we legally do it and how do we do it so that it actually gets heard? And how do we do this so something actually happens (as a result)?B次元官网网址�
The answers to these questions depend partly on how the RCMP responds to protests.
LSWK and other local groups have jointly filed a formal police complaint against the RCMP for their handling of the arrests, which they called B次元官网网址渁 gratuitous show of RCMP aggression.B次元官网网址�
The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission is also conducting an investigation that will focus on police conduct at several resource industry standoffs in B.C. in the past two years, including the Argenta arrests.
McGrady says the RCMP is developing an B次元官网网址渋ncreasingly troubled reputationB次元官网网址� because the way it enforces junctions is reminiscent of police actions of more than a century ago.
B次元官网网址淢ining companies and coal companies and logging companies would often have their own private police force. The RCMP, of course, is publicly paid and has a long tradition of supposedly independent police force. But more and more weB次元官网网址檙e seeing it intervening, and at times illegally, on behalf of these mining companies and logging companies.B次元官网网址�
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bill.metcalfe@nelsonstar.com
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