PORT MCNEILL, B.C. – A First Nation group staging a protest over logging on its territory on Vancouver Island blocked a BC Ferry for more than an hour in Port McNeill Thursday.
Members of the Kwakiutl (kwa-CUE’-tul) First Nation had canoes in the water to keep the ferry at the dock and demonstrators on land to stop cars from loading.
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A B.C. Ferry spokesman says the demonstration caused a 75 minute delay in the sailing of a ferry that links Port McNeill and Sointula on nearby Malcolm Island.
He says the RCMP kept an eye on the demonstrators but there were no arrests and no property damage.
The protest was the second of two staged by the Kwakiutl over two days to show their anger over logging in an area the First Nation claims as its traditional territory.
The band says the logging violates its rights under the Douglas Treaty, and is demanding the provincial government stop the harvesting and start negotiating commercial forestry rights with the First Nation.
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