B.C. old-growth logging protesters denied bid to have cases heard together

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has denied an application from more than 100 old-growth logging protesters who were seeking to join their criminal contempt charges together for a single trial.

All 121 of the protesters stand charged with criminal contempt of court for violating an injunction against interfering with logging operations in and around the Fairy Creek watershed on southwestern Vancouver Island.

The protesters, including members of the Rainforest Flying Squad group, filed an application in July to have their cases heard in a single trial.

Their aim was to establish for the court a complete picture of the ways in which they say the RCMP officers who enforced the injunction at Fairy Creek "exceeded the limits of reasonable and acceptable law enforcement," thereby making the case that the charges against the protesters should be stayed due to a systemic abuse of process, according to the decision of Justice Robin Baird, which was published Wednesday.

Lawyers for the accused told the court that each of the 121 protesters does not dispute their involvement in the logging blockades and intends to plead guilty to violating the injunction. But their joint proceeding would have focused instead on detailing alleged police misconduct before, during and after their arrests.

"In other words, each of the applicants admits criminal wrongdoing but each seeks a remedy that will benefit them personally by permanently cancelling the imposition of penal consequences for their conduct," the judge wrote.

"It is well settled, however, that this is a very rare and drastic remedy available in only the clearest of cases where it appears that the ongoing prosecution of criminal offences against an individual citizen will offend society’s sense of justice."

Instead, the court will proceed with 73 separate trials for the 121 accused, grouped together by the date of their arrests. The trials will run sequentially, starting with the first group of people arrested on May 17, 2021, and ending with the last on Dec. 31, 2021.

"This will allow the court to conduct trials of the earliest alleged offences, based on the narrow factual scope revealed by the direct evidence called therein, including details of alleged state misconduct and the police response thereto, with proven police misconduct 'carried forward and applied in subsequent trials, if patterns of state misconduct emerge,'" the judge wrote.

Police arrested more than 1,100 people during their enforcement of the injunction in the Fairy Creek area.

Dozens of those protesters have already had their contempt of court cases heard and the overwhelming majority have pleaded guilty. While a small minority have been handed jail sentences shorter than 10 days, the remainder received fines or were sentenced to community service work.

The injunction against the old-growth logging protests was extended on Sept. 21 for another year.