RCMP say helicopter provided supplies to old-growth logging protesters in Fairy Creek area

Victoria -

The Mounties are investigating after someone allegedly used a helicopter to drop supplies to old-growth logging protesters in the Fairy Creek area of southern Vancouver Island.

The RCMP say the helicopter dropped cement and materials to make locking devices in the Fairy Creek watershed over the weekend. Police recovered some of the supplies, according to an RCMP statement.

Investigators say someone may have illegally obscured the helicopter’s call sign and markings. They added that anyone who aids or abets those breaching the B.C. court injunction against the logging blockades can be charged.

Police arrested 16 more people in the injunction area Tuesday, including 10 arrests for obstruction and six for breaching the injunction.

The RCMP say 882 people have been arrested since police began enforcing the injunction in May.

POSTAL UNION CALLS FOR END TO OLD-GROWTH LOGGING

Meanwhile, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers has weighed in on the issue, calling for the provincial and federal governments to stop clearcut logging in old-growth forests.

In a statement Tuesday, the union denounced the arrests of protesters at Fairy Creek and demanded all charges against them be dropped.

“It’s about doing the right thing in an escalating climate crisis and when over 1,300 Indigenous children's bodies are discovered on residential school properties,” the union said.

In June, the B.C. government approved a request from three Vancouver Island First Nations and deferred logging in about 2,000 hectares of old-growth forest in the Fairy Creek and central Walbran areas for two years.

The activist group Rainforest Flying Squad says little of the best old-growth forest remains in B.C. and the deferrals fall short of protecting what is left.