Fairy Creek protesters sue logging company after vehicles towed, $2,500 demanded for release
CBC
Protesters at the Fairy Creek logging blockade are taking logging company Teal-Jones to court alleging their vehicles are being illegally impounded, while fees of more than $2,500 are levied for their return.
The lawsuit, filed on June 21, says Teal-Jones was towing vehicles that were not obstructing the forest service roads, and they had no lawful authority to demand the payments.
Though Surrey-based Teal-Jones was granted an injunction by the B.C. Supreme Court on April 1 that forbade protesters from blocking access to roads and company activity, the protesters' lawsuit says the injunction did not give the company authorization to impound vehicles.
Protesters also claim their personal possessions went missing or were damaged after their vehicles were impounded, in what they charge are escalating tactics by Teal-Jones and the RCMP at the long-running blockade.
"It was something akin to extortion to hold, to demand money, for the return of the vehicle," said Noah Ross, a lawyer for the activist coalition Rainforest Flying Squad, which filed the civil suit in B.C.'s small claims court.
Ross says more than 40 vehicles have been impounded in this way, and they were all taken to a private lot away from the Fairy Creek exclusion zone, in the town of Cowichan Lake.
A spokesperson for Teal-Jones says the impounded vehicles were illegally parked.
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