In the spring of 2021, all eyes were on Fairy Creek, Vancouver Island. The valley, which contained one of the largest unbroken tracts of old-growth forest in the region, had become a political and ideological flashpoint as protesters had camped out for nearly a year to stop a logging company from cutting the forest.
Local, national, and international news agencies were sending reporters to the blockade; Victoria residents were making the two-hour pilgrimage, laden with donated groceries; and the British Columbia NDP government was ducking pointed questions in the legislature about the protests taking place in then premier John Horgan’s own riding. What had started as an attempt to prevent planned logging on a single mountainside turned into a national discussion about the twilight of rare—and lucrative—old-growth forests. The NDP, which had promised to protect old-growth forests, was on its heels.
