The people of Grassy Narrows have sustained themselves for thousands of years on their traditional territory – 2,500 square miles of forest, lakes, rivers north of Kenora, Ontario. Now plans for clear-cut logging, mining and the legacy of residential schools, hydro damming, relocation, and mercury poisoning threaten to uproot their way of life.
Grassy Narrows Chief and Council are strongly denouncing the Long Term Management Direction (LTMD) for the Whiskey Jack Forest recently released unilateraly by the Province. The LTMD plans for new clearcutting in Grassy Territory against the will of Grassy Narrows.
Winnipeg Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement is calling for a complete boycott of logging gian Weyerhaeuser's forest products to support the Grassy Narrows blockade.
Grassy Narrows has won a major victory in their more than decade long battle to stop clearcut logging in their traditional territory. Grassy Narrows Chief and Council welcome the decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to protect the rights promised to the Anishinaabe from interference by Ontario. Madam Justice Mary-Anne Sanderson’s decision, over 300 pages in length, finds that the Government of Ontario does not have the power to take away the rights in Treaty 3 by authorizing development including logging and mining. (more…)
The Ontario Superior Court will render its decision today in Keewatin v MNR, a precedent-setting legal action dealing with the battle between clearcut logging and Treaty rights. The case was brought over a decade ago by Grassy Narrows First Nation trappers against the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.
The independent audit of logging in the Whiskey Jack Forest 2004-2009 released recently by the provincial government paints a disturbing picture of a forest in decline. The expert report verifies Grassy Narrows' assertion that the forest is not being properly taken care of.