Tension with police escalating at old-growth logging blockades on Vancouver Island, protesters say

On one day this week, police say they arrested 49 people protesting old-growth logging around the Fairy Creek watershed on southern Vancouver Island, near Port Renfrew.

That's the second-highest daily total, after the 55 arrested on May 28. The number of daily arrests has been trending up, and protesters say police are also becoming more hostile.

"Aggressively pushing forward and aggressively extracting people," Jessy Bokser, a protester from Victoria, told CBC News at the camp on Wednesday. "Just total disrespect — very physically, aggressively grabbing people that are sitting calmly on the road."

The protests centre around an area on southwestern Vancouver Island, where lumber company Teal Jones has a licence to log. A year ago, a small group of protesters set up camp to block the construction of a road that would allow access to old-growth trees in the Fairy Creek watershed.

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