The Cooper Creek Cedar logging company through a lawyer asked a B.C. Supreme Court judge on Tuesday, July 19 to invite the crown to investigate whether 19 people arrested in Argenta are criminally contempt for violating an injunction.

Many of those arrested on the Salisbury Creek Forest Service Road say they were not breaking the injunction, granted in 2019 by the court to the company, which has a cutting permit to log the Argenta-Johnson's Landing Face above the north shore of Kootenay Lake.

According to news releases from the Kaslo RCMP, 17 people were arrested on May 17, and two more were arrested on June 1. All were charged with civil contempt of court.

Members of the group Last Stand West Kootenay had a camp set up since April on private property, and had also been blocking the nearby Salisbury Creek Forest Service Road with the intention of stopping the logging. The injunction states that anyone impeding the progress of Cooper Creek Cedar is in contempt of court, which gives RCMP grounds to arrest them.

RCMP had been visiting the camp and road to warn the people blockading they would be arrested. They warned they would move in on Tuesday May 17.

A person who goes by the name "Fox," who's a member of Last Stand West Kootenay, has experience at protests and was the designated spokesperson. She wasn’t planning to be arrested. At eight o’clock on May 17 RCMP arrived.

“They barged in, they played a recording that cited that there was an injunction, but never actually read the injunction,” Fox said.

Fox told the RCMP she was going to step aside and let people know to stand aside if they didn't want to be arrested.

That’s when they arrested Fox and the legal recorders who were there to take notes on the side of the road.

There was no discussion when the RCMP arrived and no one designated to communicate what their enforcement plan was, which allows people to leave if they want, in Fox’s experience.

According to Fox, the RCMP told the group during their prior visits if anyone wanted to peacefully protest on the side of the road, they would not be arrested.

Miguel Pasteur beside the Nelson Courthouse on July 19 after his first appearance. Photo by Meagan Deuling.

Miguel Pasteur told his parents he was going to support a friend who planned to blockade the road to prevent the company from logging the trees it has a permit for.

Pasteur wasn't planning on getting arrested. The 17-year-old says he was standing on the side of the road, explaining that to two RCMP when they each grabbed one of his shoulders and dragged him away.

Tom Babbitt was there: “They came in just in a big swoop and arrested absolutely everybody.”

Not everyone. Babbitt didn’t get arrested, which was strictly a matter of where he was, he contends. He managed to walk up the road to get away, and saw others disappear into the trees.

Gary Diers, a farmer who lives in Argenta, went to the forest service road a little after six in the morning with his partner and two elderly neighbours. They were there to “bear witness,” Diers said, because it is a rural area, and he is aware of how RCMP arrested people who were protested logging at Fairy Creek protests on Vancouver Island.

Diers was standing a distance away on the side of the road at eight when the RCMP arrived. He saw Fox get arrested right off the bat.

“She was saying quite loudly and clearly, ‘I am not on the road, I am not on the road,’ just repeating herself.” Diers said.

Then Diers heard that the two legal recorders got arrested, and a local 70-year-old woman who was leaving the area to make a doctor appointment.

“That’s when I realized, they are just going to come and arrest everyone.”

Diers and his group walked down the forest and along the beach. They circled around the long way home to avoid the police cars driving up and down the main road.

Everyone present at the protest who StokeFM spoke with said there were members of an RCMP police services group there called the "community-industry response group," or CIRG.

Babbitt knew it was CIRG because, “they identified themselves as part of the resource team brought in for this.”

RCMP gathered on the Salisbury Creek Forest Service Road on May 17 after arresting 17 people. Photo by Breanne Hope.

According to the RCMP website, CIRG was created in 2017. “…to provide strategic oversight addressing energy industry incidents and related public order, national security and crime issues.”

After the road was clear, people who were staying at the camp say the RCMP came in and dismantled it, destroying and discarding personal property including camping equipment and cash.

The Kaslo RCMP hasn’t responded to StokeFM’s request for more information on CIRG, and their perspective on the arrests. Nor has Sgt. Chris Manseau, the division media relations officer for the B.C. RCMP Communication Services.

A crowd of about 50 mulled in front of the Nelson Courthouse the morning of July 19 before the 19 people arrested in Argenta appeared at 10 a.m. before the Supreme Court of B.C. Photo by Meagan Deuling.

People arrested in Argenta started to gather outside the Nelson courthouse on July 19 early in the morning, along with members of Last Stand West Kootenay and other supporters. There were about 50 people there.

The court proceeding was brief. It was standing room only, and Sinixt Matriarch Marilyn James was present to smudge the room with sage before Justice Lindsay Lyster took the stand.

Noah Ross is representing 17 of the 19 people arrested, he was present from Vancouver Island via video. Matt Scheffelmeier was present, he is counsel for Cooper Creek Cedar limited.

His application to ask Justice Lyster to invite the crown counsel, also known as the B.C. Prosecution Services, to investigate whether the people arrested should be found criminally contempt of course, is a more severe punishment than the original charges of civil contempt.

If the crown decides to investigate, the logging company will be out of the mix and will not have to pay legal fees, according to Ross in a phone call after court was adjourned.

Despite the name, a charge of criminal contempt is a civil matter and doesn’t come with a criminal record. Punishments range from community service, to fines, to jail time.

StokeFM has reached out to Bill Kestell, the Cooper Creek Cedar woodlands manager, and hasn’t heard back from him. The Argenta-Johnson's Landing Face is an area of ancient larch trees adjacent to the Purcell Wilderness Conservancy provincial park, and locals have been trying for a long time to get the Argenta face protected in that area too. They’re concerned about caribou who live there in the winter time, and about the stability of the slopes if they’re logged.

Documents available on Cooper Creek Cedar’s website describe the work the company has done to mitigate landslides, even eliminating certain blocks that are too steep from being logged. The company has worked with biologists and the B.C. Caribou Recovery Team, and are leaving some areas treed for the caribou as well.

StokeFM has not reached out to the engineers or biologists who did these studies, or the B.C. Caribou Recovery Team to ask about their findings. More to come.

The next court date for the 19 arrested has not been set.

Click link below to hear the radio report on this which played live on StokeFM on July 20, 2022: