Second Remand Custody For Peaceful Protest

A second Restore Passenger Rail supporter has been remanded in custody following her peaceful protest for climate action. She is 63-year-old Jen Olsen, a health care worker from Ōtepoti Dunedin.

Olsen and two other Restore Passenger Rail supporters sat on the southbound lanes of State Highway 1, just north of the Terrace Tunnel, and were removed by police. On Tuesday last week, Rosemary Penwarden, a 64-year-old grandmother and retired hospital laboratory scientist, was the first Restore Passenger Rail supporter to be denied bail.

“I knew this could happen after what happened to my fellow activist Rosemary last week, but I was prepared and committed to action on climate because this is more important. This is not about me, this is not about Rosemary. This is about action on the climate crisis,” says Olsen.

“The government can’t arrest its way out of the climate crisis — arresting activists and locking them up is not going to change what is happening to our world. It’s an emergency; we know it’s a climate emergency. We need action right now.”

“We believe Rosemary and Jen are the first climate activists in New Zealand to be remanded in custody. Both were taking part in peaceful civil resistance, following a tradition of similar actions where ordinary New Zealanders have protested for what they believe in: women’s right to vote, a nuclear-free New Zealand, and the end of apartheid,” says spokesperson Joseph J Fullerton.

“Anyone who is concerned about the climate crisis, join us. Together we can tell the government that we, the people, are desperate for real meaningful action on the climate crisis, and that ordinary people are prepared to go to these lengths to do that,” says Olsen.

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