Two old-growth logging protesters arrested at a protest that blocked the Trans-Canada Highway on Vancouver Island are facing criminal charges.
Members of the group Save Old Growth have staged a series of disruptive demonstrations, blocking roadways in Metro Vancouver and on Vancouver Island this week.
The charges relate to a protest in Langford on Wednesday when several people blocked rush-hour traffic on Highway 1 near the West Shore Parkway for about four hours.
“Upon police arrival, those individuals left the road with the exception of two individuals, a man and a woman who had attached themselves to a large metal barrel filled with concrete,” West Shore RCMP said in a media release.
“Those individuals secured themselves through the barrel as a tactic to impede and slow down their removal.”
Mounties say 33-year-old Derek Hugh Menard of Victoria is charged with intimidation, mischief and failing to comply with the conditions of an undertaking, while 23-year-old Elizabeth Helen Stewart, also of Victoria, is charged with intimidation and mischief. Both appeared in court on Thursday.
Save Old Growth is calling for a comprehensive ban on harvesting all old-growth trees, but not on logging in general. On its website, it says the blockades are “part of an ongoing escalation to demand an end to old-growth logging.”
“This is not a big demand, we’ve only got 2.7 per cent of the productive old-growth left. Killing the last of these ancient trees is a death sentence for millions of Canadians due to ecological breakdown,” the group said in a media release on Thursday.
A related protest became heated when demonstrators blocked traffic Thursday on Ironworkers Memorial Bridge between Vancouver and North Vancouver.
In that instance, some frustrated commuters got out of their vehicles to drag the protesters off the roadway. One person was arrested at the scene.
Police say 84 people have been arrested in the province since January in Vancouver, Revelstoke, Victoria and Nanaimo.