Roughly 20 Extinction Rebellion Nanaimo members blocked one of two accesses to the shipping yard. (Spencer Sterritt/NaniamoNewsNOW)
protest

Extinction Rebellion Nanaimo blocks access to Nanaimo Assembly Wharf

Jun 22, 2021 | 2:50 PM

NANAIMO — A protest against old growth logging in B.C. stymied anyone trying to enter Port Authority lands.

Roughly 20 people blocked the 1 Port Dr. entrance into the Nanaimo Assembly Wharf on Tuesday, June 22 starting at 1 p.m.

While they held up signs and blocked the entrance, activist Howard Breen swam out to a logging freighter being loaded in Nanaimo to inconvenience their operation.

A release from the group asked for an immediate ban on the export of raw logs and the sale of wood waste from old-growth forests, as well as higher taxes on exports from second-growth forests to encourage investments in local mills.

“The carnage in our old growth forests has to stop immediately,” Nanaimo coordinator Leah Morgan said in the release. “Thousands of good paying jobs in our rural community tree farms are lost with log carrier ship departures annually.”

In early June the Huu-ay-aht, Ditidaht and Pacheedaht First Nations announced the postponement of old-growth logging in two areas on southern Vancouver Island for two years.

More than 250 people have been arrested for failing to obey an injunction against protesters at the Fairy Creek Watershed near Port Renfrew. They’ve camped there since last summer to protect what they describe as the last unprotected old-growth forest on southern Vancouver Island.

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