Three Years Later: The Fight at Fairy Creek Continues
August 8th, 2023: that is the three-year anniversary of the first blockade in 'Fairy Creek'. It was erected in 2020 to protect one of the last intact watersheds on Vancouver Island. The local Indigenous name for this watershed is Ada'itsx. Law enforcement would arrive via injunctions in May the following year.
What came next was the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, by many metrics: nearly 1200 arrests were made and even the RCMP submitted affidavits claiming enforcement was the largest operation in their history. From May to September 2021 there were near daily confrontations between land defenders and police. Some days there were 5 arrests, other days up to 70. The stamina of this movement was unmatched, for a time.
Earlier this year the BC Government renewed a deferral on logging in some parts of the Fairy Creek watershed. It is imperative to note that this deferral does not prevent road building, which is a common tactic to harvest high yield trees without officially logging. The land defenders understand this.
'Savage Patch' is the current blockade, erected two weeks ago, to protect Mt. Edinburgh. It sits west of the original Waterfall and Ridge camps, with Gordon River (an important salmon spawning location) between them. I spent 6 days at the new frontline, to understand why they returned.
I found a familiar face among them. He has asked to be referred to as ‘Monsanto’. In 2021 he volunteered to take the place of ‘Fungus’, a 16 year old girl, atop a very high tripod at Waterfall camp. He recalled, “a minor should not be putting themselves in danger like that, so I took her place.”
When he was subsequently extracted, the RCMP botched his removal from the tripod. He fell 14ft to the ground, suffering a severe concussion. Monsanto needed medical attention but the police ignored his needs, arrested and processed him, then left him in a paddy wagon for 4 hours. Eventually he was dropped off at a hospital in Duncan. This is the same treatment ‘Pathfinder’ received after their concussion at Sassin camp in 2022, during another botched extraction.
I have not seen Monsanto since the Summer of 2021, so I asked him what the last two years have been like and how his recovery has progressed. Right off the bat, he told me he's developed aphantasia, described by him as the inability to imagine things. He recounted the life he led growing up on the island. He was financially independent around 15 and by 18 was earning more than both of his successful parents. He was always hustling, had three jobs on the go. He built art installations for festivals and had a busy, healthy social life. His speech picks up pace as he shares his story and I can see the person he described peeking through.
From 18-22 years old he felt he was on the right track, his life was going well, he was thriving. Now his life is delineated by a traumatic brain injury. He has a poor temperament and irritability, but it has improved over time. He hasn't been able to work as much. He can only handle one job. His earning potential will never recover, but he says he's made peace with it. The hardest (and most unexpected) issue has been the aphantasia, as creativity was a pillar of his life.
Despite the struggles he faces, he remains positive. He is an unimposing and gentle person. It's hard not to think about how the worst things seem to happen to the kindest people.
Monsanto is one of many land defenders at the front. As a whole, their motivations aren't different than years prior: the ancient trees are still being logged.
The RCMP have enforced the injunction the way they see fit. They will restrict the media unnecessarily and hide their identification, in direct contradiction of Judge Thompson's orders.
Teal Jones (who owns license to log this area) claims, erroneously, that they have the consent of the Hereditary Chief of the Pacheedaht.
It looks like all parties grew more experienced from years of conflict. A deferral is not policy. Until the Government steps up and protects the last remaining old-growth forests, I suspect this fight will continue.
