News Release

Wilderness Committee prompts BC Supreme Court to narrow injunction against logging protesters

VANCOUVER – The Supreme Court of British Columbia has narrowed an injunction that erroneously named the Wilderness Committee as the organizers of a blockade protesting logging of old-growth forest in Vancouver Island’s Walbran Valley.

The Court also ordered Teal Jones Group, the logging company that filed the injunction, to pay the environmental charity’s legal costs immediately. 

“The injunction unfairly restricted the Wilderness Committee’s ability to carry out lawful activities to protect the Walbran Valley,” said Joe Foy, national campaign director of the Wilderness Committee. “Now we have confirmation from the Court that we can continue to do what we have done for the last 30 years: Go to the Walbran Valley to report on unsustainable logging and educate the public about the importance of protecting old-growth forest.”

The Walbran Valley contains some of the finest intact tracts of old-growth temperate rainforest left on southern Vancouver Island. Over 90 per cent of low-elevation old-growth on the Island has already been logged, and there is a strong and growing movement calling on decision-makers to preserve what little is left.

The Wilderness Committee does not organize or participate in civil disobedience. However, there is broad public support for the protection of this forest and independent citizens have also been travelling into the area to protect it.

“We’re glad to know that members of the public will now be allowed to keep visiting this spectacular old-growth forest, and continue with lawful activities to help preserve it,” Foy said. “These are public forests and we believe it’s really important that they remain open to the public – not just to logging company representatives.”

The Wilderness Committee was represented by lawyers from Ecojustice in this proceeding.

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For more information, please contact:

Joe Foy | National Campaign Director, Wilderness Committee
604-880-2580, joe@wildernesscommittee.org