The B.C. Prosecution Service says it has withdrawn contempt charges against 11 old-growth logging protesters accused of breaching a court injunction during blockades at Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island.
Spokesman Gordon Comer says prosecutors were in court Tuesday to enter the withdrawals, and the service is reviewing other cases in the wake of a ruling that acquitted protester Ryan Henderson earlier this year.
Comer says the Crown is reviewing remaining cases that were impacted by the Henderson decision, which tossed out the charge because of the RCMP’s failure to properly read the injunction to people arrested during the protest.
A lawyer defending protesters says the Crown is expected to withdraw charges against as many as 150 people because police used a short-form script to inform people of the injunction instead of reading the whole thing to those accused of breaching it.
B.C. Civil Liberties Association president Karen Mirsky, who has several clients facing contempt charges for protests at Fairy Creek, says police didn’t follow long-standing legal principles when they failed to read the full injunction.
Mirsky says the RCMP spent millions of dollars during the protests on Vancouver Island and the force’s failure to properly enforce the injunction highlights how provinces should re-think the kinds of policing they’re getting for their public dollars.