Coordinated by the organization Save Old Growth, two separate protests in BC have led to the arrest of seven individuals..Save Old Growth’s mandate is to immediately end all old-growth logging in BC and has spearheaded a series of demonstrations to raise awareness for its cause, the most recent of which was carried out Monday morning when a small group of protesters blocked traffic on Vancouver’s Ironworkers Memorial Bridge — clogging the roadway for roughly an hour..Access to Vancouver from North Vancouver was blocked until Vancouver police arrested four individuals, allowing traffic to open up..Vancouver police said the protesters will face multiple charges related to mischief and blocking the roadway.. FPgf1OsUcAMrLfACourtesy Save Old Growth .The second demonstration took place in the province’s capital, where traffic was also blocked for about one hour on a downtown Victoria street..Three individuals were arrested for mischief by Victoria police and traffic opened back up. Those arrested were released with a scheduled court date..“Following the first wave of disruptions in January, which resulted in 54 arrests, Save Old Growth had paused to give the government time to pass legislation, however, there has been no action or statement from the government and so disruption of the highway will resume at an escalated intensity, starting this morning,” reads a statement from the organization, released Monday morning..While many British Columbians are opposed to the eradication of the province’s ancient forests, they say the manner in which Monday’s demonstration was carried out will only irritate people, particularly in Vancouver, a city plagued by traffic congestion..Reid Small is a BC-based reporter for the Western Standard.,rsmall@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/reidsmall
