Cases dropped against 146 Fairy Creek protesters over RCMP's failure to read full injunction at arrests

Prosecutors in B.C. have withdrawn cases against nearly 150 protesters who were arrestedfor participatingin a blockade aroundold-growth logging on Vancouver Island after a judge this year found Mounties did not read the full text of a court order to the group.

A statement from the B.C. Prosecution Service on Thursday confirmed cases against 146 protesters have been dropped because their ability to succeed was "placed in doubt" by aruling that acquitted protester RyanHendersonin February.

"Those cases are now concluded as a result of this ruling," read an email to CBC News.

The confirmation comes hours after the Supreme Court of Canada said it would not hear the Crown's appeal of the Henderson decision, marking the end of the legal road for prosecutors trying to keep the cases against protesters alive.

The ruling is also a victoryfor demonstrators who said officers' script didnot pass the legal test.

Henderson was cleared of contempt in February when a B.C. Supreme Court justice found RCMP officers read only a shortened version of an injunction to hundreds of protesters, including Henderson, who were arrested at the Fairy Creek logging blockade on southern Vancouver Island.

Justice Douglas Thompson ruled the officers' shortened script didn't include enough information to give protesters enough "actual knowledge'' to understand the order they were accused of breakingand prove the demonstratorswere "wilfully blind'' to thoseterms.

As is customary, the Supreme Court of Canadadid not provide reasons for its decision not to hear Crown's appeal.The Crown later said the charges were dropped this spring, as prosecutors waited for a decision from the high court.

In April, the prosecution servicewithdrewcontempt charges against 11 old-growth logging protesters as a result of the Henderson case.

Fairy Creek protests

TheFairyCreekprotests began after logging permits were granted in 2020 allowing Teal Cedar Products to cut timber, including old-growth trees, in areas including theFairyCreekwatershed northeast of Port Renfrew, B.C.

Protest camps were set up close to the cutting site in August 2020 and injunctions aimed at preventing interference with logging or forestry crews followed the next year.

Confrontations escalated in 2021, leading to RCMP intervention and what is considered one of the most extensive acts of civil disobedience in Canadian history as more than 1,100 demonstrators were arrested.

Afive-month injunctionto stop old-growth logging protesters from blockading logging access to the forest was first granted in April 2021and then extended for a year after that.

The Rainforest Flying Squad, an activist group, saidmore than 400 Fairy Creek arrestees were charged with criminal contempt following the extended protest, with 210 charges still before the courts.