Nina Newington with anonymous supporter during lunch break at the courts on Jan 26, 2021
From a post by Nina Newington on Extinction Rebellion Nova Scotia (public Facebook Group):
“I spent the day in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court on January 26th, observing WestFor’s application to extend the temporary injunction they were granted in December against the Extinction Rebellion Nova Scotia Association and John and Jane Doe.
“Nine Moose Country forest protectors — including me — were arrested for failing to obey this injunction. The injunction barred anyone from blocking any logging road anywhere on crown land that WestFor has a license to harvest. We face criminal charges of disobeying a court order. Our cases will be heard on March 15th in Provincial Court in Digby. We are all forbidden, under the terms of the undertaking we signed when we were arrested, from setting foot on any of the crown lands covered by the injunction. Due to COVID regulations, I was the sole representative in the public gallery of the people who blockaded logging roads in Digby County for 8 weeks. I submitted an affidavit but WestFor’s lawyers chose not to cross-examine me.
“
I plan to write several different notes covering different aspects of the hearing. This first one has to do with a map of the ‘Moose Concentration Area’ that was entered into evidence by WestFor manager, Marcus Zwicker, as Exhibit A of his rebuttal affidavit. WestFor’s lawyer, Ian Dunbar, seemed to agree that we had set up the blockades in order to protect the habitat of the endangered Mainland moose. He based his case for making the temporary injunction more permanent on the notion that, since WestFor planned to go on cutting down moose habitat, people who cared about moose might try to get in the way again.
“He directed Justice Coady’s attention to the map made by the province in 2012 of the ‘Moose Concentration Area’ in Southwest Nova Scotia. To my unlawyerly ears, Mr. Dunbar’s argument went like this: WestFor is going to cut in this area. Therefore we need you to extend this injunction so that no-one can interfere in any direct or indirect way with our ability to remove moose habitat anywhere we have a license to harvest. This means you, John and Jane Doe. You don’t have to be one of the people who was arrested. You don’t have to have visited the blockades. You don’t even have to be a member of Extinction Rebellion Nova Scotia. This injunction applies to you, whoever you are.
“Meanwhile, the Department of Lands and Forestry, the very same Department that licenses WestFor to cut in the Moose Concentration Area, still has not complied with last May’s Supreme Court order. It still has not identified core habitat for the moose. Something the province was supposed to do back in 2004, a year after the Mainland moose were added to the endangered species list.
“WestFor’s contractor has started clearcutting the rare mature coniferous forest that our Rocky Point Lake blockade was protecting. 36,000 Nova Scotians have signed a petition calling for an immediate halt to clearcutting on the crown land we were protecting. Crown land in the Moose Concentration Area. Crown land that could one day be designated core habitat, if the province ever does its job. This is no time to take the spotlight off this government and the permission it gives its licensee, WestFor, to destroy essential habitat for an endangered species. Unlike Nova Scotia’s citizens, the Department of Lands and Forestry is allowed to intervene to protect irreplaceable moose habitat. So please, keep calling Minister Mombourquette, keep emailing, keep sending postcards.
“p.s. We don’t know how long it will take for Justice Coady to reach a decision. You can get the moose postcards from Marilyn Cameron Maricameron0ATgmail.com — Nina Newington, Extinction Rebellion Annapolis County, Jan 28, 2021 ”
Coverage of the Injunction hearing
On The Signal (audio)
Kings College, Jan 29, 2021.It starts at minute 5:40
News brief: Heavy handed Westfor legal tactics aim to intimidate mainland moose protectors
By Robert Devet in the Nova Scotia Advocate, Jan 27, 2021. “Someday, Lands and Forestry will be the ones in court for issuing clear cutting orders and not us for protecting it,” said Joyce.”
Court arguments in forestry blockade injunction case focus on irreparable harm
Francis Campbell in the Chronicle Herald Jan 26, 2020 (subscription required)
Logging company tells protesters to take their concerns up with the province
Social Sharing
Taryn Grant · CBC News
Some related posts, documents
Endangered Mainland Moose Special Management Practices
Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources July 2012, pdf (2 pages)
Forestry and Mainland Moose Management in Digby County, NS
WestFor on YouTube, Jan 27, 2021
Who Shall Protect the Moose?
Bev Wigney on Annapolis Royal & Area – Environment & Ecology, Jan 13, 2021 (copied onto NSFN). “In a 1981, biologist P.T., was tasked with studying and evaluating the impact of a proposed access road for mining exploration – a road that might threaten a remnant moose population in a remote area of southwest Nova Scotia…Fast forward to now. The purpose of the recent “Moose Blockade” activity was an attempt by concerned citizens, to stall further building of logging roads and forest harvesting activity into this remote pocket of wilderness… ”
12 Days of Action
Posts on On Annapolis Royal & Area – Environment & Ecology (Public Facebook Group) Dec 26, 2020 to Jan 7, 2021, copied onto NSFN
Jacob has been joined by Heather in downtown Halifax camp-out to draw attention to harvesting in moose country and other forest and water issues
After three weeks of camping out, lone protester told to leave Grand Parade
By Robert Devet in the Nova Scotia Advocate, Jan 6, 2021. “Jacob started camping out here three weeks ago, after spending time with the forest protectors deep in the woods of Digby County….”
SHANNI BALE: WestFor statement on mainland moose challenged
Shanni Bale in Chronicle Herald Dec 17, 2020
Police arrest 9 protesters impeding logging project after court-ordered injunction
Alex Cooke · CBC News Dec 16, 2020
Why we should worry about the few remaining mainland moose, now more than ever
By RobertDevet in the Nova Scotia Advocate, Dec 14, 2020
Mainland Moose, forestry can co-exist
Marcus Zwicker in the Chronicle Herald, Dec 15, 2020. Subscription required. Image on WWNS
Westfor granted injunction to remove Southwest Nova protesters (Audio)
CBC Info AM talks to Lawyer Jamie Simpson is representing one of the protesters. Dec 14, 2020
Dispatches from Moose Country Day 23
By Nina Newington, Nov 13, 2020
Letter: A meeting request from the Moose Country Blockade
Nina Newington/Extinction Rebellion Nova Scotia in the Nova Scotia Advocate, Nov 12, 2020
Protesters block logging road, say endangered moose at risk
Emma Smith, Phlis McGregor · CBC News Oct 27, 2020
JAMIE SIMPSON: Up to citizens to challenge government when laws not followed
Chronicle Herald, June 3, 2020
Nova Scotia’s lands and forestry minister says he’ll strengthen conservation work
Taryn Grant · CBC News June 1, 2020
Top court rules province broke endangered species law
Francis Campbell on saltwire.com May 29, 2020. “The case marked the first time the Endangered Species Act, enacted in the province in 1999, was interpreted by a Nova Scotia court.”
Moose
Page and subpages on this website about the Mainland Moose and the Cape Breton Moose.