CLARIFICATION: Gwaii Wood Products Ltd., the private company recently convicted of Fisheries Act offences for activities on private land, is not owned by the Haida Nation or any of its related companies. An earlier version of this story contained incomplete information.

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A provincial court judge in Masset has found three forest companies — one owned by two high-profile Haida — guilty of 20 counts each of environmentally destructive logging practices.

Judge Michael Brecknell said the violations by Gwaii Wood Products Ltd., Howe Sound Forest Products Ltd., and I. Crosby Contracting Ltd. occurred adjacent to Highway 16 about 3.5 kilometres northeast of the Village of Port Clements on Graham Island, between June 24 and Oct. 20, 2010.

Logging and road construction resulted in the harmful alteration, destruction or disruption of fish habitat — riparian vegetation, wetlands, three tributaries flowing into the Kumdis Bay Estuary, three tributaries flowing into Mallard Creek and Mallard Creek itself — all in violation of the federal Fisheries Act.

The court heard that Gwaii purchased District Lot 413, private land, on June 25, 2010, for $124,000. Gwaii entered into a log-sales agreement with Howe Sound, which, in turn, reached an agreement with Crosby to do the logging.

The agreements required that environmental laws be respected during the harvesting of 28,000 to 35,000 cubic metres of timber. That’s not how it turned out. On Oct. 19, 2010, a citizen complained of logging damage to Mallard Creek, launching the federal investigation.

Although Gwaii made no presentations at trial it did seek to have the charges against it dropped on the grounds its contract with Howe Sound called for good stewardship. Judge Brecknell disagreed, noting that Gwaii had not shown due diligence over the logging and that it was not good enough to simply contract out its legal responsibilities. The case has been adjourned to Nov. 12 to fix a date for sentencing.

Arnie Bellis is president of Gwaii and former elected vice-president of the Council of the Haida Nation. Gwaii director Frank Collison is also a former vice-president and a member of the Haida Hereditary Chiefs Council.

Bellis said in an interview Friday that he’s as unhappy as anyone with the way events turned out and would like to see those who destroyed the land be ordered by the courts to remediate it. “We’re just as disturbed any anybody … Who wants to wake up in the morning and destroy your own land? That’s not good.”

Howe Sound was incorporated in 1984 but dissolved in 2013. Its directors were Derik Ram Pallan and Bhagat Ram (Tom) Pallan. I. Crosby directors are Irene Minnie Crosby and Rob Pineault. No one appeared at trial for Howe Sound or I. Crosby.

Retired fisheries biologist Al Cowan told the trial it was heartbreaking to see what logging had done to such a productive “fish-factory” habitat. “I have never seen anything like this before. I’ve seen lots of streams, I’ve seen lots of Mallard Creeks, I’ve seen lots of tributaries, but I have not seen such … wetland features in such a small area, with an estuary on it for the fish to move back and forth.”