“What is the value of a standing forest?” asks Nina Newington. And, “What price a lost forest? And who pays that price? Whose forest was it, in the first place?”
Contemplative moments at Rocky Point Lake Forest.
By Nina Newington
Originally posted on Annapolis Royal & Area – Environment & Ecology
Earlier posts in this series:
– Nina Newington Notes from Court #2 — the Illusion of Consent, February 5th, 2021
– Cutting Moose Country# 1 in Nina Newington’s Notes From Court 30Jan2021
———-
Background: 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. WestFor is a consortium of 13 sawmills.
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. On March 15th we will find out when exactly we are to enter our pleas in Provincial Court in Digby. Sometime later our cases will go to trial. In the meantime we are barred 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.
This is the third in a series of notes covering different aspects of the hearing. The first looked at the use WestFor made of ‘Moose Concentration Area’ maps. The second focused on the role of the province’s Harvest Plan Map Viewer in creating the illusion of consent. This third one has to do with the legal tests for turning an interim injunction into a more permanent interlocutory one. Perhaps we will have a ruling on the case by the time I write a fourth. Continue reading →
