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B.C. old-growth protesters celebrate as contempt prosecution has 'collapsed'

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 19 Apr, 2023 01:48 PM

The B-C Prosecution Service says it has withdrawn criminal contempt charges against 11 more people accused of breaching a court injunction during old-growth logging protests on Vancouver Island.

Gordon Comer with the prosecution service says they’re reviewing other cases affected by a court ruling back in February that acquitted protester Ryan Henderson on contempt charges due to the R-C-M-P’s failure to properly read an injunction to Fairy Creek blockaders.

Comer says charges are being reviewed on a case-by-cases basis and that the Crown is appealing the Henderson ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Lawyer Karen Mirsky, who has defended several clients facing Fairy Creek contempt charges, says the R-C-M-P’s decision to use a short-form script of the injunction went against long-standing and established legal principles, leading to the collapse of upwards of a 150 cases involving Fairy Creek protesters.

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