Court says hundreds of Walbran Valley trees ‘spiked’ as blockade injunction extended

Tsawak‑Qin Forestry Inc.’s activities in the upper Walbran Valley have been disrupted by protesters opposed to old-growth logging since August 2025.

Justice H. William Veenstra’s ruling says the company claims to have lost more than $3 million in revenue in the last year, spending money on fixing damaged equipment and running the risk of having cut approvals reduced, while blockades have prevented it from properly winterizing roads.

Veenstra’s ruling says the injunction should be extended to Jan. 31, 2028, in light of the “seasonal nature of the work” by the logging firm and its contractors, with winter being more appropriate for a review of the blockade rather than the “height of the work season.”

The ruling says the RCMP made at least 14 arrests for breaching the injunction last year, but there have been none so far this year.

“However, there is a significant amount of uncontested evidence showing that there have continued to be significant interferences with the operations of Tsawak-Qin,” the ruling says. “More significantly, there has been a substantial increase in matters giving rise to safety concerns – particularly the evidence of tree spiking.”

Veenstra found the evidence showed protesters had adopted “evolving blockade techniques and tactics that are steadily more difficult to deal with and that give rise to escalating safety concerns.”

“Thus, the new evidence establishes that there continues to be irreparable harm suffered by Tsawak-Qin,” the ruling says.

Forests Minister Ravi Parmar said last year that reports of tree-spiking at the Fairy Creek logging blockade were “incredibly alarming,” and condemned the act as a “dangerous criminal activity” that put workers at risk.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 3, 2026.

Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

Court says hundreds of Walbran Valley trees ‘spiked’ as blockade injunction extended

What's Trending