Help us reach $1M for our legal frontlines!
Welcome to the official fundraising site of the Fairy Creek Blockades at Ada’itsx.
Help us reach our goal by donating and sharing widely! Every little bit helps - THANK YOU.
ABOUT OUR MOVEMENT
We're honoured to do this work on the unceded territory of the Pacheedaht and Ditidaht First Nations. We're here at the invitation of Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones, whose unifying leadership, traditional knowledge, life experience and courage are at the heart of our movement.
We recognize and acknowledge the incredible work done by Indigenous youth, women and Matriarchs on the land, gathered from all nations to help support Elder Bill Jones.
We thank all those brave folx who have come to the front lines, to the forest, to stand together with Elder Bill to protect the land and trees. Without the people on the ground at camp the government would continue to #talkandlog until the last of these forests were gone.
We also thank the tens of thousands of supporters who continue to donate time and money - making phone calls, sharing posts, talking to friends and family about the importance of this issue, sending gear and writing letters to decision makers and news outlets. You are ALL needed to bring about the paradigm shift required to turn this climate crisis train wreck around.
Klecko Klecko!
ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE IMPLICATIONS
“Old-growth rainforests consist of 1,300 tonnes of carbon per hectare, compared with 1,100 tonnes in tropical rainforests, and 70 percent of that carbon is lost into the atmosphere when the forest is clear cut. Deforestation accounts for 20 percent of our carbon emissions” (Dr. Suzanne Simard, tree-scientist and best selling author).
“Old growth forests anchor ecosystems that are critical to the wellbeing of many species of plants and animals, including people, now and in the future. The conditions that exist in many of these forests and ecosystems are also simply non-renewable” ( Old Growth Panel Strategic Review , April 2020). Photo credit: Colin Smith (@colinsmithtakespics on Instagram)
In August 2021 the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) announced a “Protect Our Elder Trees Declaration”, calling for a deferral of old-growth logging and demanding First Nation engagement in any logging issue.
More than nine-in-ten British Columbians (92%) support taking action to defend endangered old-growth forests in BC. (SIerra Club B.C., 2021)
We are a volunteer driven, grass-roots collective of committed citizens standing UP to corporate greed, unjust laws, and colonial systems of oppression .
It is our collective responsibility to leave old growth forests and ancient ecosystems standing. There is no time to wait; the crisis is now and so is the solution - US!
We can only keep going with the support of people like YOU !
National Day of Truth and Reconciliation Sept 30,2021 at
Ada’itsx (Fairy Creek) Posted @fairycreekblockade (Photo credit @ruz.rose)
THE JOB IS NOT DONE
The BC NDP government has failed to take swift action and protect threatened old-growth forests across the province. Premier John Horgan promised permanent protection of old-growth forests, but provided no money or alternative resource plans - which has put First Nations in an impossible position.
The research is clear: Moving slowly is no longer an option if we hope to have any ancient forests left for the future. We must keep the pressure up on the B.C. government to provide adequate funding for Indigenous Nations and forestry workers to move to sustainable forestry practices.
WITH YOUR HELP, WE'RE WAGING THIS FIGHT ON TWO FRONTS: IN THE WOODS AND ON THE #LEGALFRONTLINES
We're currently focused on an exciting, precedent-setting case in the BC Supreme Court. On February 23, 2022, Justice Douglas W. Thompson handed down his decision to allow an Abuse of Process Application to move forward to a full hearing.
The Application is being advanced by lawyers representing Fairy Creek land defenders who feel that police misconduct was to such an extent that those who were charged with contempt should not be prosecuted .
RCMP have been accused of widespread and systemic misconduct, which will be reviewed in detail now that the hearing will move forward. The full hearing is yet to be scheduled and is likely to take place in late 2022. We hope to have over 100 people join the Application so that we can make a precedent-setting court case overturning all those who experienced abuse.
We need to give this our best shot - for the sake of the movement, to send a message to the RCMP that they are not above the law, to to avoid any future abuses this summer, and to set a precedent for how injunctions are enforced across Canada. This could help our comrades in Wet’suwet’en territories too.
Your support will help us make it happen!
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By donating today your funds will directly support:
- Legal funding for Indigenous land defenders and forest protector allies who were arrested on the frontlines of this campaign.
- Up to 40% of funds raised go to general expenses for things like satellite communications, food, camping gear, and fuel for transportation and cooking as well as for personal support for indigenous land defenders, BIPOC and activist protectors. We are also hoping to establish a legacy fund for future community initiatives.
Please help us reach our goal of $1M. Every donation helps!
Klecko Klecko!
GET INVOLVED AND JOIN OUR MOVEMENT
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Photo credit: @arvinoutside
Legal Fight
On April 1, 2021, Teal Cedar Products was granted a 6 month court injunction to remove Indigenous land defenders and activists from the Fairy Creek watershed. The peaceful protection camps were the only thing standing in the way of ancient trees being clearcut.
Since then, the Fairy Creek Blockade at Ada’itsx has become one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in Canadian history. This movement is reshaping the global conversation about old growth forests, activism, reconciliation and Indigenous sovereignty.
SEPTEMBER 14 - 17, 2021 - Rainforest Flying Squad’s legal team argues against Teal Cedar’s request to extend the injunction in the Supreme Court of BC, citing the following reasons:
- Police use of excessive force
- Infringement on right to protest (civil disobedience)
- Infringement on public access to those lands
- Weighing public interest against private interests
SEPTEMBER 28, 2021 - Supreme Court Justice Thompson denies the request by Teal Cedar to extend the injunction, citing significant RCMP misconduct, including:
- Stripping protesters’ covid masks before pepper-spraying them
- Improper constraints on freedom of the press
- Use of illegal expansive exclusion zones and checks
- Wearing Thin Blue Line badges contrary to RCMP Headquarters directives
- Failing to wear identification
- Denigrating the courts reputation
- Infringing on civil rights.
In his judgement Justice Thompson had this to say about our movement:
“[T]hey are respectful, intelligent, and peaceable by nature. They are good citizens in the sense they care intensely about the common good.”
OCTOBER 8, 2021 - Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein agreed to hear Teal Jones’ appeal on November 15, and reinstated the injunction until that time. In her ruling, Justice Stromberg-Stein claimed that our blockades have a significant and detrimental impact on Teal Jones’ operations, including:
- Difficulty for the company to undertake its typical logging activity, which has led to a potential loss of clients and the degradation of its reputation
- Potential unemployment and permanent loss of workers
- Economic harm to their First Nations partners
From Justice Stromberg-Stein:
“In a situation where criminal law has not been effective, it is in the interests of justice to grant this stay to prevent serious prejudice to Teal Jones.”
Following the two-year logging deferral announced this summer, Ada'itsx, the Fairy Creek watershed, remains unlogged. Yet logging continues all around it and roads are being built into it. The equivalent of at least 34 soccer fields of old-growth temperate rainforests is logged on Vancouver Island every day. Despite the NDP government's own election promises to protect at-risk old-growth forests, there has been a forty-three percent increase in old-growth logging approvals in BC this year. (Photo credit: @fairycreekblockade Instagram, June 6 2021)
JANUARY 26, 2022 - Teal Jones won their appeal –
the B.C. Court of Appeal judges have upheld the injunction and
it will be extended until September 26th. That means that industry
and the RCMP will be back in full force.
While disappointing, this decision doesn't come as a surprise.
The colonial government of British Columbia is built on resource
extraction. This government has no interest in truth and
reconciliation, they have no interest in saving our forests, and
they have no interest in true democracy. They are more interested in
upholding the rights of one corporation than those of thousands of
citizens. The people of this province don’t want old growth logging.
They want it protected.
Historical Highlights
On August 9, 2020 with the invitation of Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones and bound by a mutual agreement, people headed to the steep Reid Main logging road and successfully stopped that road building. This blockade has remained since that day.
On February 19, 2021 the timber company that holds tenure over that “public” land, officially served a notice of injunction, effectively requesting a court order that would make it illegal to prevent their access. By then, the small group had evolved to becoming a diverse movement and had established 3 primary blockade locations as well as several pop-up blockades, all actively preventing road building, falling and the extraction of ancient trees throughout a wide region of the Island’s South-Western shelf.
On April 1st BC Supreme Court Justice Veerhoeven granted the injunction and rather than give space for reasonable consideration about the global importance of the movement, the RCMP immediately prepared their most heinous task force to approach the matter. (C-IRG). This injunction is being appealed; part of this legal fund is to support this appeal.
By that time, much had changed. Committed to genuine collaboration, diverse interests focused on human rights, decolonization and eco-justice came together to push for powerful and much needed shifts in the government and industry dominated approach to resource extraction.
In addition to scientists, ecologists and sustainable forest economy activists, Indigenous youth, Elders, and gender-diverse folx had come to invest themselves in sovereigntist and cultural rehabilitation direct action work. A wide, practical and analytical anti-colonial movement spread within the campaign. The young and upcoming Hereditary Chief Victor Peter of the Pacheedaht chose to stand with Elder Bill Jones and support the campaign, these being upstanding representatives of the local community who say “no” to the deforestation of sacred ecosystems on their territory.
May 17 the C-IRG began enforcing the court order, effectively exposing blockaders, journalists and legal observers to arrest and forcible removal from sites across the Tree Farm License area including at Fairy Creek, Edinburgh Mountain, the Caycuse watershed and the upper Walbran. This also includes egregious human rights violations preventing coastal Indigenous peoples from access to their own territories.
Simultaneous to the state and industry led initiative to break the blockades, a carefully crafted public-facing effort to discredit and disenfranchise the campaign was also underway.
April 12th, a letter signed by Pacheedaht band council (PFN) Chief Jeff Jones and Hereditary Chief Frank Jones, was released, stating that unsolicited interference with an ongoing Integrated Resource Stewardship plan was unwelcome on PFN territory. The letter claimed to speak for the nation but was issued unilaterally and without community consent. While the Province publicly applauded the letter as an act of sovereign authority, leaked E-mails revealed that the office of the Minister of Strategic Initiatives had collaborated with Rod Bealing, (PFN band forestry manager), on the letter’s release. A coordinated social media blitz by the NDP MLAs and a speech by the premier followed the release of the letter.
On June 7th, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs gave his public endorsement of the Old Growth Strategic Review Panel’s recommendations, commended the efforts of the public and Indigenous communities for protecting the woods and shaming the province for their lack of commitment to preservation of coastal rainforests and the coastal peoples who have stewarded them since time immemorial.
