We spoke with Nina Newington, one of the forest protectors who were arrested while defending mainland moose habitat in Digby County from destruction. “I understand that for many people the arrests have been discouraging, but gosh, most struggles take a long time and many people around the world take far greater risks than we have taken and fight for far longer.”
Lindsay Lee wrote the following letter following the call to action by Jacob Fillmore, the young man camped out on Grand Parade Square to protest the government’s lack of action on climate change. “An increasing number of Nova Scotians are exasperated by the lack of environmental action. Together, we are telling you that this era of autocratic governance and environmental degradation must end.”
Media release and photos: On day 56 of this historic protest, nine of the forest protectors from both encampments peacefully refused to honour the intent of the injunction. They were subsequently arrested and charged by the RCMP with being in contempt of a court order with conditions to appear in court in Digby in the new year.
RCMP have arrested at least 8 people camping out at the blockades in Digby County. Earlier Westfor had served a temporary injunction against the forest defenders who for almost eight weeks blocked access to woods flagged for clearcutting in the remote area.
The Digby County forest defenders are facing a temporary injunction in their efforts to protect the threatened mainland moose. Here are some of the reasons why protesters are willing to be arrested if it comes to that.
A peaceful occupation of the Lands and Forestry office in Halifax in support of the threatened mainland moose was abruptly ended by Halifax police after two hours. Their only demand was for the minister to meet with a group of people who are camping out in order to protect mainland moose habitat from clearcutting.
Press release: A group of Pictou Country residents and cottage owners is heartened by a judicial decision granting them approval to proceed with legal action against the Department of Lands and Forestry in a dispute over the placement of an armour rock wall.
Lindsay Lee: Citizens should not have to sue their government or occupy clear-cutting sites. But Nova Scotians will continue to fight for what is right for our environment and our province.
I spoke with Mike Lancaster of the Healthy Forest Coalition about (not) protecting the mainland moose in Digby County, and what should be done about it.
“Right now it’s one of the few areas in Nova Scotia that remains non-fragmented, and regardless of the presence of moose, it’s important to maintain these unfragmented corridors in Nova Scotia, to provide a habitat for the species at risk, moose being the example in this case. Clearcutting exacerbates everything even more,” he tells me.
Since Wednesday members of Extinction Rebellion and others have occupied a piece of forest land in Digby County that they fear is destined to be clearcut in the near future. They are worried because of sightings of mainland moose in the same area, a threatened species, with only around 100 left in the province.