Toronto Star: The Indigenous-led Fairy Creek protest on southern Vancouver Island, active since August 2020 and with 1,188 arrests, so far, is the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history.

The RCMP has reportedly spent $6.8 million on policing in 2021, cycling in officers from round the province for one- to three-week stints. Pacheedaht elder Bill Jones, who has invited the protestors to his nation’s traditional territory, is calm in the face of locals who support logging….“Uncle Bill” tells of the dissent he faces from his own Pacheedaht band council, whose members value the proceeds of logging and have asked the protestors to leave their territory. It’s a difficult thing for me to accept,” says Uncle Bill. “we are in the end game. And we are fighting for the last of our Mothers ancient old growth.”

Fairy Creek’s struggle has moved beyond the old-growth trees. Indigenous logging is a “total victory of the Indian Act”, according to Uncle Bill – the legislation was meant to eradicate Indigenous culture in favor of assimilation, and has made the Pacheedaht financially dependent on the outsiders’ forestry companies.