Cases dropped against 146 Fairy Creek protesters over RCMP’s failure to read full injunction at arrests

Prosecutors in B.C. have withdrawn cases against nearly 150 protesters who were arrested for participating in a blockade around old-growth logging on Vancouver Island after a judge this year found Mounties did not read the full text of a court order to the group.

A statement from the B.C. Prosecution Service on Thursday confirmed cases against 146 protesters have been dropped because their ability to succeed was "placed in doubt" by a ruling that acquitted protester Ryan Henderson in February.

"Those cases are now concluded as a result of this ruling," read an email to CBC News.

The confirmation comes hours after the Supreme Court of Canada said it would not hear the Crown's appeal of the Henderson decision, marking the end of the legal road for prosecutors trying to keep the cases against protesters alive.

The ruling is also a victory for demonstrators who said officers' script did not pass the legal test.

Henderson was cleared of contempt in February when a B.C. Supreme Court found RCMP officers read only a shortened version of an injunction to hundreds of protesters, including Henderson, who were arrested at the Fairy Creek logging blockade on southern Vancouver Island.

Justice Douglas Thompson ruled the officers' shortened script didn't include enough information to give protesters enough "actual knowledge'' to understand the order they were accused of breaking and prove the demonstrators were "wilfully blind'' to those terms.

As is customary, the Supreme Court of Canada did not provide reasons for its decision not to hear Crown's appeal.

In April, the prosecution service withdrew contempt charges against 11 old-growth logging protesters as a result of the Henderson case. The dropped cases confirmed Thursday, including Henderson's, bring the total to 158.

Fairy Creek protests

The Fairy Creek protests began after logging permits were granted in 2020 allowing Teal Cedar Products to cut timber, including old-growth trees, in areas including the Fairy Creek watershed northeast of Port Renfrew, B.C.

Protest camps were set up close to the cutting site in August 2020 and injunctions aimed at preventing interference with logging or forestry crews followed the next year.

Confrontations escalated in 2021, leading to RCMP intervention and what is considered one of the most extensive acts of civil disobedience in Canadian history as more than 1,100 demonstrators were arrested.

A five-month injunction to stop old-growth logging protesters from blockading logging access to the forest was first granted in April 2021 and then extended for a year after that.

The Rainforest Flying Squad, an activist group, said more than 400 Fairy Creek arrestees were charged with criminal contempt following the extended protest, with 210 charges still before the courts.