Listen Live
Listen Live

Cooper Creek Cedar pushes to identify group’s social media managers 

A group that backed logging protests near Argenta is under fire in court as an attorney for Cooper Creek Cedar seeks to have the organization identify their online managers.

Court heard allegations last week that Last Stand West Kootenay was telling their members through online postings to participate in violating a court injunction imposed by the Supreme Court of B.C.. 

“They’re alleging that account has created wrongdoings by encouraging people to breach the injunction and counsel people to cause harm to Cooper Creek,” Noah Ross, the lawyer for Last Stand West Kootenay, said in court on Friday

Cooper Creek asked for information that would give them access to the last 300 logins and logouts of the organization’s social media accounts. They are also seeking information about the user’s contact information, and IP addresses.

“It is a fairly unusual order to give up the identity of any anonymous social media account,” says Ross. “Cooper Creek is saying wrongdoing was done to them, but they are not pursuing charges against anyone who was arrested.”

Ross says there is no evidence of wrongdoing since all Last Stand West Kootenay was doing was inviting people to come to the site and witness the protest.

“I will argue that the application doesn’t hold merit, and should not be granted,” says Ross.

Access to information of this nature is currently protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as outlined in section eight. 

  • Individuals in Canada have a right under section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to be free from unreasonable searches and unreasonable seizures of their property and their personal information.

“I hope that the verdict of this case is in favor of protecting privacy,” says April Giroux. “You can’t just take private information, and it would be a scary world if companies could just do that.”

Giroux was in court with Meghan Beatty, who were among 19 people arrested near Argenta to protest against logging. They appeared in court earlier in the summer.

When they appeared in front of a judge in July in a Nelson court, Cooper Creek Cedar said they would file criminal proceedings against the defendants. 

“I think they are just trying to intimidate us,” says Beatty. “This seems to be their standard approach when it comes to dealing with protests.”

“I think they are just going to try and tie up prosecution, and waste tax dollars.” 

After six hours of testimony, Justice Lindsay Lyster didn’t reach a verdict on the company’s application. No date has been set for her ruling.

Continue Reading

chnv Now playing play

ckkc Now playing play

- Advertisement -

Related Articles

- Advertisement -

Latest News

Former Nelson public works director, councillor Bob Adams dies at 82

After 26 years looking after the city's infrastructure, Adams served four terms on city council.

Infrastructure, housing, UNDRIP will top agenda as local governments meet in Victoria next week

Members of local governments and First Nations are gathering in Victoria next week for the annual Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) convention.

B.C. Conservatives support federal bill to classify intimate partner killings as first-degree murder

B.C. politicians are voicing support for a federal Conservative bill that would classify the killing of an intimate partner as first-degree murder. 

Whitewater eyes funding to pave access road

Whitewater Ski Resort is asking the Regional District of Central Kootenay (RDCK) to back its bid to pave a six-kilometre stretch of the Whitewater Access Road.

“Please stop”: Eby says Alberta’s pipeline dream jeopardizes B.C. projects

Premier David Eby said Alberta’s push for a new pipeline is a threat to existing major projects in B.C. 
- Advertisement -