Canadians Urging Halt to Logging Indigenous Land

Canadians Urging Halt to Logging Indigenous Land



2007 September -   Clearcutting vast 
swaths of northern boreal forest in the traditional territory of a 
Canadian indigenous tribe violates the rights of its members and should 
stop, says Amnesty International Canada. 
Amnesty is calling on the Ontario government to respect a moratorium on 
logging declared by the people of Asubpeeschoseewagong, or Grassy Narrows, 
until "free, prior and informed consent" has been given. 
"The Province of Ontario has long failed to uphold its responsibility to 
respect indigenous rights," the report states. "The province did not carry 
out meaningful consultation before licensing large-scale logging 
activities. 

And it has ignored clear calls from the community to stop the logging and 
other industrial development until consent is given." 
Canadian Supreme Court rulings require meaningful consultation and 
accommodation of aboriginal concerns and, in some circumstances, the 
consent of the affected people before government undertakes activities 
that impact indigenous land use, the report points out. But all too often, 
federal and provincial policies and regulations fail to conform to what is 
required. 
Amnesty sent a mission to Grassy Narrows in April to look into the rights 
violations, only the second such investigation in Canada's history. While 
Grassy Narrows was chosen because a history of catastrophic disruptions 
makes the situation there particularly urgent, the report says it is not 
unique. Rather, "it's a powerful illustration of the great harm that can 
be caused by the exercise of arbitrary and unchecked state power over the 
lands and lives of indigenous peoples." 
The report received scant media coverage, even though it was released in 
the middle of the current Ontario election campaign in which indigenous 
concerns are an issue because of several high-profile occupations and 
blockades. One aboriginal occupation of a proposed subdivision on disputed 
land has lasted 19 months. 
"Aboriginal disputes are not on the wavelength of many editors unless they 
erupt into violence, in which case it fits their news values," John 
Miller, journalism professor at Ryerson University in Toronto, said in an 
interview. 
Miller said he does not believe the attitude of news professionals 
reflects a majority indifference to a minority plight. "I think there is a 
more favorable, more curious attitude on the part of the general public 
than there is from the news media or politicians. It's unfortunate that 
the public is not going to learn about this report." 
Ontario Conservative leader John Tory, who is calling for a crackdown on 
indigenous protests, did not respond to a request for comment. 
David Ramsay, aboriginal affairs and natural resources minister with the 
incumbent Liberal party, defended Ontario forestry regulation as among the 
most sustainable in the world. 

Grassy Narrows is the only community where there have been problems, he 
said, insisting, "We have good relationships, especially in the north 
where we have forestry." 
In fact, there has been a groundswell of discontent from First Nations 
across the north over resource extraction without revenue sharing. 
Ramsay noted that in early September, at the very end of his four-year 
mandate, he appointed retired Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank Iacobucci 
to lead discussions with Grassy Narrows representatives on forestry 
issues. Talks are to start in November. 
Amnesty's Craig Benjamin, author of the Grassy Narrows report, says 
Iacobucci's appointment was a positive step. "At the same time there's no 
guarantee the talks will proceed quickly. Where is the protection of their 
rights in the interim?" Ramsay said Iacobucci has the power to order 
interim protection measures. 
Grassy Narrows first made news in the early 1970s, when it was discovered 
that a pulp mill had released mercury into the English-Wabigoon river 
system for almost a decade. The Anishinaabe community's cash economy, 
based on commercial fishing and guiding, was wiped out. 
Many residents were found to have elevated mercury levels and even now, 35 
years later, symptoms of mercury poisoning persist. These include 
deterioration of motor control, memory loss, speech impairment and 
diminishing eyesight, as well as miscarriages and children born with 
developmental disabilities. 
However, the Amnesty report notes, it has been extremely difficult to 
persuade the federal government of any link between these symptoms and the 
known exposure to mercury. Health Canada, the federal department of 
health, has argued that the symptoms could be linked instead to diabetes, 
multiple sclerosis or alcoholism. 
The Amnesty report calls on the federal government to undertake a health 
study to determine whether mercury poisoning is the source of severe 
health problems at Grassy Narrows and nearby Wabaseemoong First Nation. 
The mercury poisoning is not the only tragedy to have hit Grassy Narrows. 
In the 1950s, the construction of two hydroelectric dams changed water 
levels, reducing the important wild rice harvest and habitat for 
furbearing animals. 
In 1961, the federal government started relocating the people from 
family-based land holdings spread out over the river system to a densely 
packed subdivision-style settlement on the road to Kenora. The new reserve 
has more limited access to the waterways and poor soil that cannot sustain 
traditional gardens. 
Like indigenous people across Canada, the people of Grassy Narrows also 
suffered the forced removal of children to residential schools - a 
practice that only ended in the 1970s - the persecution of indigenous 
religious societies, and the exclusion from federal Indian status of women 
who married non-status men, which ended in 1985. 

"Despite these profound threats to their culture and way of life, the 
people of Grassy Narrows are determined to maintain and, where necessary, 
rebuild their relationship to the land," the report states. 
"Everything about being Anishinaabe is the land," Roberta Keesick, a 
Grassy Narrows trapper and grandmother says in the report. "Without the 
land that's pretty well cultural genocide." 
The relationship is protected by treaty - in this case, Treaty #3, signed 
in 1873, covering some 6,000 square kilometers where Asubpeeschoseewagong 
families have had traplines and hunted moose and harvested berries for 
generations. 
Most forestry in Canada takes place on provincial Crown land, which is 
public land, and much of which is also within the traditional territory of 
a tribe. 
The provincial government licenses forestry companies to harvest 
designated areas. Clearcutting is Ontario's preferred harvesting method in 
the northern boreal forest and the province allows the largest clearcuts 
in Canada. In 2005-2006 the average clearcut size was 48 to 2,618 hectares 
and the maximum reported clearcut was 25,536 hectares. 
In 2002, when Abitibi Consolidated prepared to clearcut close to the 
boundary of the reserve, the community rose up in protest. Mainly young 
people and women, they blockaded a logging road. The blockade still 
stands, the longest political action of its kind in Canadian history. 

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