Protesters wait
Campers at Plan B work site say police visit is coming.
In the end, the police did not come for the Plan B protesters Wednesday and they may not come today, but they know it is inevitable.
There is nothing the protesters can do but wait, discuss strategy for when the RCMP arrive and make a very personal decision to be charged and possibly arrested.
It is expected the police will come to the camp, inform the protesters of their options ( although everyone realistically knows there is only one and that is to leave the makeshift camp) and give them a certain length of time to vacate the restricted area.
When the police return, anyone found there can be charged.
The protesters, who number up to about 30 depending on the time of day and if they think the police are about to move in, have made camp in a small ravine in the Bonshaw hills among some old hemlocks and other trees with a stream running through it.
For the moment, this area is their protest ground zero and is a symbol of everything they see awrong with the so- called Plan B Trans- Canada Highway realignment.
They seethe at what they feel is an unwarranted destruction of the environment for the sake of a road.
But their protest is broader than that. They are also angered at what one protester called the arrogance of the Robert Ghiz government to plow ahead with the project and to seemingly steamroller over any opposition.
“The issues are still around the impact on the environment, the forest around here and the wildlife and the impact on fish habitat is still a priority, but we still have a lot of other concerns around the overall project in terms of the fiscal responsibility of the province spending this money and the lack of consultation,” Roy Johnstone, a protester, said in an interview at the campsite Wednesday.
Other protesters and at least one landowner are angered over the expropriation of their land.
“We are still very concerned about the safety of the operation because there have been three or four instances where operators have been threatening people with their equipment,” Johnstone said.
They are also planning to fight the project in the courts and to that end, they are preparing a request for an injunction that should go before a judge “any day now,” Johnstone said.
He would not go into specifics on what grounds it is based upon.
But he did acknowledge the protesters have a tight deadline in regards to the injunction because if work does move into the ravine area before the request is heard, it could be for naught.
Johnstone said that he understood the RCMP assured several of his colleagues they would not be coming into the camp Wednesday, but “we are anticipating there very well could be an attempt to come in tomorrow and we are asking all the Islanders who support us to come and join us … to me it is really a wonderful opportunity to experience this old- growth hemlock forest in its natural state.”
Johnstone does question the attitude of the RCMP.
He said in the first days of the protest “the police said that we were legally in our rights to be on the land … and they said there were going to be warnings and then ( Tuesday) there were people charged with trespass without being given a warning.”
He said he found that a little unfair, so he is unsure how the police will act when they finally do come into the camp.
A Transportation Department spokeswoman said work continued Wednesday, but not in the area near the camp while there were people inside.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth May, leader of the federal Green Party, has issued a statement in support of Peter Bevan- Baker, who was served papers by the RCMP to appear in court in December. Bevan- Baker entered a restricted area Tuesday and was charged.
“This project cannot be justified for safety reasons and will destroy not only some precious, unique habitat, but the trust and respect of many Islanders and their faith in our democratic institutions, ” said May.
“Peter’s fight against this unnecessary highway realignment is a brave one. He was on public land. There is a constitutional right to assemble peacefully. These trespassing charges are unreasonable and I demand they be dropped immediately by the RCMP,” she said.
Bevan- Baker will be acclaimed Green Party of P. E. I. leader in November.