RCMP said they arrested three protesters Tuesday as they resumed enforcement of an injunction against old-growth logging protesters at a controversial Vancouver Island blockade.
Mounties said they began the operation around 9 a.m., when officers with the Police Liaison Team spoke with demonstrators who were blocking a bridge over the Gordon River in the Fairy Creek watershed.
A court injunction is in place in the area barring interference with logging work by Teal Cedar Products, and police said protesters were given the opportunity to abide by the order by leaving or moving to a designated protest area or face arrest.
Three people refused to move, were arrested, and have since been released, police said. Mounties alleged someone also assaulted an officer before fleeing into the woods.
Earlier Tuesday, RCMP said Teal Cedar had reported “numerous violations of persons obstructing, impeding and interfering with” work the Fairy Creek watershed.
“There have also been reports from company employees of being harassed or intimidated, and their equipment and corporate vehicles vandalized on a forestry road outside of Port Renfrew,” police said.
Old-growth logging opponents had also established a new blockade on the TR-11 Forestry Service Road at the Gordon River Mainline at the Gordon River, according to police.
Mounties said they had been “monitoring” protest activities in the area, but that the company had now requested they enforce the court order.
Global News is seeking comment from demonstrators at the site.
The police action comes less than a week after the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear a government appeal of the acquittal of a Fairy Creek protester who had been cleared of criminal contempt because police read him a shortened version of the injunction.
The BC Prosecution Service subsequently dropped its case against 146 other old-growth logging protesters accused of violating the injunction, saying there was no substantial likelihood of conviction.
Confrontations between police and protesters have led to more than 1,100 arrests since 2021.
— with files from the Canadian Press