The BC Prosecution Service has withdrawn contempt charges against 11 old\u002Dgrowth logging protesters accused of breaching a court injunction.
Spokesman Gordon Comer says prosecutors were in court Tuesday to enter the withdrawals, and the service is reviewing other cases after a ruling that acquitted protester Ryan Henderson earlier this year.Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion delivered straight to your inbox at 7 a.m., Monday to Friday.By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
A lawyer defending protesters says the Crown is expected to withdraw charges against as many as 150 people because police used a short-form script to inform people of the injunction instead of reading the whole thing to those accused of breaching it. B.C. Civil Liberties Association president Karen Mirsky, who has several clients facing contempt charges for protests at Fairy Creek, says police didn’t follow long-standing legal principles when they failed to read the full injunction.
Mirsky says the RCMP spent millions of dollars during the protests on Vancouver Island and the force’s failure to properly enforce the injunction highlights how provinces should rethink the kinds of policing they’re getting for their public dollars.