Pacheedaht Elder calls for land defenders to return to Fairy Creek watershed; will the CRU/C-IRG be deployed again?

Photo: Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones and land defenders at the Ada’itsx / Fairy Creek Blockade. Photo from the Fairy Creek Blockade Facebook page.

On June 2, the Government of British Columbia announced that it had “approved a legal order to extend the deferral of old-growth harvesting in the Fairy Creek watershed until Feb. 1, 2025.” That appeared to be good news, but there is reason for concern.

On June 5, fairycreekblockade posted on Instagram: “LOGGING IS CONTINUING – The extension of the deferral at Fairy Creek has by no means stopped the slaughter of our ancient forests. …Elder Bill has requested that land defenders return to his territory, we are currently sorting out the logistics of doing so in a manner that will keep us ALL safe (-The trees included!).”

It was Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones who first invited allies to the territory near Port Renfrew to stop Teal Jones from logging old-growth forest.

Late last month, he commented: “Enforcement is there to defend the logging companies and are given free rein over their actions and create any law they want to further defend the logging companies who are supported by our biased government policies.”

The RCMP reportedly made a total of 1,188 arrests at Fairy Creek between May and December 2021. That enforcement cost $18,716,968.

It also resulted in nearly 500 formal complaints about the RCMP to the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC).

The CBC reports: “More than 100 grievances accepted for investigation contain allegations of excessive force, illegal tactics, unprofessional behaviour, racism, discrimination and charter violations by the force’s Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG).”

Citing “unjustifiable” police actions at Fairy Creek, an RCMP officer resigned from the C-IRG. The National Observer reports: “The resignation from the RCMP’s controversial Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) came in an email dated Sept. 5, 2021, after the officer, with 13 years of experience, was sent to the long-running protest in the Port Renfrew area on southeastern Vancouver Island.”

By March 8, 2023, the CRCC launched a systemic investigation into the C-IRG which is focusing on “the C-IRG’s governance, command and control, and operational planning, as well as its activities and enforcement operations with respect to at least three sites [including] the Teal Cedar Products Ltd injunction in the Fairy Creek watershed.”

Despite this, the British Columbia government still allocated $36 million over a three-year period to the C-IRG. Public Safety minister Mike Farnworth says that number is “based on an average that we have spent in this province over the last number of years in terms of dealing with the enforcement of court ordered injunctions.”

Meanwhile, the Abolish C-IRG coalition has called for the C-IRG to be suspended during the period of the CRCC investigation, which is expected to take 12-18 months.

The call for land defenders to return to Fairy Creek and the likely return of the C-IRG (now rebranded the Critical Response Unit, CRU) is cause for concern.

We will continue to follow this closely.