Valerie Elliott

March 9, 2023, Vancouver, BC – Territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT was filed March 8th, 2023 against the RCMP by two media professionals. They’re seeking to hold the RCMP accountable for breaching their Charter rights, and the constitutional rights of hundreds of other individuals at Fairy Creek. The suit names the federal government and notes the Crown’s liability for wrongful conduct by Members or Officers of the RCMP. “Our case aims to demonstrate that in its enforcement of an injunction order, the RCMP infringed on the constitutional rights of members of the public at Fairy Creek—rights that are protected under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” says Halla Ahmed, an attorney at Branch MacMaster LLP. The Notice of Civil Claim asserts that the RCMP exceeded its legal authority infringing on Sections 2, 7, 8 and 9 of the Charter. The plaintiffs are represented by Branch MacMaster LLP and Arvay Finlay LLP, law firms known for their work in class actions, constitutional, and public law. Representative plaintiffs, Arvin Singh Dang, a professional photographer and teacher, and Kristy Morgan, a film producer, were asked to document at Fairy Creek when they and hundreds of others were subjected to unlawful tactics by the RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG). The claim alleges that fundamental rights were breached, including freedom of the press, freedom of peaceful assembly, and the right to life, liberty and security of the person. Mr. Dang, Ms. Morgan and others were targeted under the C-IRG unit’s punitive exclusion zone policy where Mounties arbitrarily arrested, and detained peaceful members of the public and the media without just cause or reasonable grounds. In some cases, the excessive force resulted in serious injury. Photo (and one at top) ©ArvinSinghDang The 26-page claim describes RCMP officers’ use of a “catch-and-release” policy where hundreds of individuals who had not breached the injunction order were detained or arrested. Often, law-abiding citizens were held for extended and unreasonable lengths of time without charges being laid. Mounties did so in unsafe situations, or in areas far removed from Fairy Creek. It’s believed that of the almost 1,200 arrests at Fairy Creek, most were released without charge. The injunction order still in place prohibits certain actions within a designated area in Fairy Creek, but does not prohibit access to the entire area. Exclusion zones described as “large, militarized areas” were set up that denied the public access to areas within Fairy Creek. The RCMP is said to have arbitrarily and spontaneously expanded and moved exclusion zones resulting in people being forced, sometimes permanently, to abandon personal belongings, equipment and vehicles. On July 20, 2021, in response to RCMP’s restriction of media access, Supreme Court Justice Thompson said, “In short, these RCMP blockades are unlawful.” “We believe the BC Supreme Court Injunction intends to balance the interests of logging company, Teal Cedar, with the public’s right to freely access roads and trails in Fairy Creek as they can in other areas of British Columbia. The public still maintains the right to assemble and engage in lawful protest, and the media has the right in Canada to document such events.” says David Wu, an attorney at Arvay Finlay LLP. The lawsuit will introduce evidence to support allegations that there were extensive infringements by the RCMP upon the rights of media and members of the public. Evidence will be introduced that attests to the police directing and authorizing the use of excessive force or violence, herding individuals into exclusion zones in the practice of “kettling,” blocking access to forest services roads, preventing medical treatment, and indiscriminately using pepper spray on bystanders including removing COVID face masks to do so. It is expected that many individuals who were impacted by RCMP conduct will be part of the proposed class action lawsuit. More information about the lawsuit is available here. “The RCMP has an opportunity to correct its course to ensure that its conduct aligns with the Canadian Charter and that unconstitutional policies are not used in the future,” says Wu. Valerie Elliott leads iD2, a Victoria-based communications firm that works with clients who are taking action to change the world.

Forest defenders allege systemic RCMP misconduct and seek widespread stay of criminal contempt charges. Snuneymuxw, Snawnawas & Stz’uminus Territories, Nanaimo, BC DEFENCE LAWYERS for Fairy Creek forest defenders are in the BC Supreme Court August 16th and 17th to formally add 121 people to an Abuse of Process application. Forest defender “applicants” argue the RCMP engaged in systemic violence and abuse last year, during the enforcement of an injunction in the Fairy Creek watershed on southwest Vancouver Island. The applicants will assert that this conduct deprived them of their fundamental freedoms, including their right to peaceful assembly, freedom of conscience and expression. The Abuse of Process applicants are seeking a stay of their criminal contempt charges in one of the largest abuse of process applications in Canadian history. A hearing on the application has not been scheduled yet. After an injunction was granted to Teal Cedar Products Ltd. on April 1, 2021, allowing the company to log and clear-cut large areas of old growth in the Fairy Creek watershed, the RCMP and its Community-Industry Response Group began enforcement actions in May 2021. Those enforcement actions continued through the end of 2021, resulting in approximately 1200 arrests, considered the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. The Crown filed charges of criminal contempt against more than 400 people, many of whom face jail time for their nonviolent actions. Roughly 85 people have been found guilty of contempt thus far. The Crown has sought fines as high as $3000, up to 100 hours of community work service, and custodial sentences ranging from 3 to 10 days in jail for at least 12 forest defenders. Many more yet to be tried are facing even longer jail sentences. All Abuse of Process applicants experienced some form of police misconduct during the arrest or detention process, and all are facing contempt charges. Forest defenders claim that the Charter and common law violations, which deprived them of their fundamental freedoms, were “an objective of the RCMP’s enforcement operation,” according to the Notice of Application filed earlier this year. Examples of abuse include pepper spraying, punching, kicking, dragging, and “pain compliance” techniques. Assaults were also carried out by police in a widespread manner against people who were never arrested or detained. RCMP members pepper-spraying forest defenders at Fairy Creek in 2021 Applicants claim that police imposed arbitrary and unlawful “exclusion zones” to curtail civilian, legal, and media oversight while engaging in enforcement that, at times, relied on excessive force and coercion. The forest defenders claim that the RCMP raided their camps, and carried out systemic destruction and seizure of property, including necessities for survival in the back country, such as vehicles, food, shelter, communications devices, medications, fuel and other items, some of which were turned over to Teal Cedar. Applicants will argue that police denied them food, water, medication, medical assistance, and access to legal counsel. In a February preliminary hearing, BC Supreme Court Justice Douglas W. Thompson granted permission for the applicants to advance their claims. The application will be heard by Justice Robin Baird at the courthouse in Nanaimo. “The importance of this case cannot be understated,” said Karen Mirsky, co-counsel for the applicants and president of the BC Civil Liberties Association. “Are the police permitted to engage in tactics, including what we say is misconduct, to curtail peoples’ right to assemble and to express their thoughts and beliefs, when they are not actively breaching a court injunction?” asked Mirsky. “We will argue that the RCMP’s interpretation of the injunction in this manner is a very clear case of abuse of process, and convicting those who actively breached the injunction would amount to the court’s approval of this type of overall enforcement.” Mirsky and her co-counsel Noah Ross state in the Notice of Application that there is “no alternative remedy capable of redressing the prejudice,” and a stay of charges is “the only remedy which will adequately dissociate this Court from the misconduct of the RCMP.” While lawyers are seeking a stay of charges against the applicants themselves, they recognize that “the court has the ability to stay charges against all contemnors if it feels this is necessary to preserve the integrity of the justice system.” “The RCMP is acting as a cudgel for industry by engaging in violence against forest defenders on behalf of Teal Cedar and its voracious appetite for logging Old Growth forests,” said Rani Earnhart of the Rainforest Flying Squad. “The police cannot be allowed to use excessive force and other tactics in order to suppress our movement to end Old Growth logging without legal and serious consequences.” Less than three percent of BC’s original productive old growth forests remain standing. The “Old Growth Strategic Review Panel” for the province urged an end to old growth logging in 2020, yet the government has thus far failed to implement its recommendations. Two recent polls show that 85 percent of BC residents are “highly concerned” about Old Growth logging, and 92 percent support a moratorium on old growth clear cutting. Forest defenders began blockading roads on the western ridge of Fairy Creek on Pacheedaht territory in August 2020, but only experienced police abuse after the Teal Jones injunction was imposed in April 2021. Valerie Elliott is with the Rainforest Flying Squad and Last Stand for Forests, a volunteer-driven, grassroots, non-violent direct action movement committed to protecting the last stands of globally significant ancient temperate rainforest in British Columbia. They stand in solidarity with Elder Bill Jones and other members of the Pacheedaht Nation in the protection of the ancient forest of their ancestral territory. For additional info: www.laststandforforests.com.

Pacific salmon stocks at risk of collapse due to endemic virus ON APRIL 23, HEREDITARY CHIEF TSAHAUKUSE (George Quocksister Jr.) of the Laichwiltach Nation gathered together with the support of 97 BC First Nations. They’re demanding that Premier Horgan refuse to renew 79 fish farm licenses based on the damage being done to wild Pacific salmon stocks including disease and the loss of young salmon. The fish farming licenses are due to expire on June 29, 2022. Tsahaukuse and his supporters demand the Horgan government accept the extensive scientific evidence that he and biologists have gathered. A federal government order was recently overturned that would have seen the phasing out of fish farms this year. “These salmon don’t belong here. These fish farms are owned by multinational corporations who farm Atlantic salmon—they’re not even Pacific salmon,” says Chief Tsahaukuse. “Our young salmon enter and are trapped in filthy pens. They become food for the Atlantic salmon, a free source of stock for the corporations, or they die from disease.“ Tsahaukuse has extensively recorded every pen in the 40 fish farms in and around his territory. “I have hard evidence showing these farms destroying not only wild salmon species and herring but all life in our waters,” notes Tsahaukuse. A scientific study by five scientists found that 95 per cent of the farmed salmon on BC’s coast are infected with piscine orthorevirus (PRV), a virus originating from Norway that is responsible for steeply declining salmon reproductive numbers and their deaths. “Our 97 Nations want these licenses refused by Premier Horgan,” demands Tsahaukuse. “That’s the bottom line. Get all the farms out—watch our wild salmon rebound naturally.” Driving the same distance Pacific salmon swim every year to reach their community, Secwepemc Elders, including Mike Arnouse, traveled 13 hours from Kamloops to stand in solidarity with Chief Tsahaukuse. “We get really concerned,” says Arnouse. “They’re putting the farms right in the path of where the little smolt [young salmon] swim.” A July 2021 Insight West survey found that 86 per cent of BC residents voiced extreme concern about declining salmon stock, with 75 per cent believing that open-net salmon pens need to transition to land-based solutions. “Our communities depend on wild salmon stocks not only for our communities but for the 100s of species that depend on them,” adds Tsahaukuse. Chris Seitcher of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation (Tofino) invites all supporters to join them for a flotilla in the Tofino Harbour on Saturday, May 7, 2022 at 11AM. They want all BCers to join First Nations in sending a clear message to Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray and to Premier John Horgan — “Do Not Renew in 2022.” Valerie Elliott (she/her) is managing director of ID@ Communications Inc. Flotilla Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/345923450905941 See videos of Tshuakuse and his supporters on April 23 and Tsahaukuse at the pens. Map showing salmon farms and sockeye salmon migratory route.