One person was arrested after Supporters of ‘Save Old Growth’ blocked all lanes of the Trans-Canada Highway in West Vancouver this morning.
The highway was also blocked in Nanaimo and more disruptions are planned for Victoria today. As many as 21 arrests have been made this week already, bringing the total to 75 since January as the group continues to escalate its disruptions until the government passes legislation to immediately end all old-growth logging in the province.
The group says one person has been arrested in West Vancouver and another in Nanaimo today.
“We’re only going to keep escalating. We really don’t want to be doing this, but we are not going anywhere. Humans don’t lie around and let their governments kill them, which is what they’re doing with inaction on the emergency. We’re in civil resistance.” said Julia Torgerson, a 24-year-old spokesperson for the group, in a press release.
Following the first wave of disruptions in January, which resulted in 54 arrests, Save Old Growth had paused to give the government time to pass legislation. However there has been no action or statement from the government and so disruption of the highways is resuming at an escalated intensity.
“We’re past signing petitions, writing letters and doing marches. The people in power have ignored these for decades. Unfortunately that isn’t enough, At this time we all need to be entering into civil resistance.” said Torgerson.
People across British Columbia are invited to join Save Old Growth and enter into civil resistance at an online introduction talk on Wednesdays at 6:30pm PST, said Torgerson.
They have no right in a democracy to block citizens going about their every day business – this applies equally to Truckers in Ottawa and environmental terrorists in Vancouvet.