Grassy Narrow is raising concerns about Ontario’s plans to proceed with large clearcuts in the Treaty #3 community’s traditional territory.

Ontario had agreed not to allow logging without the consent of the community in its territory in the Whiskey Jack Forest north of the English River while an 11-year legal action winds its way through the court system, but this past December the province made public, without the community’s support, a new Whiskey Jack Long Term Management Direction (LTMD) calling for large clearcuts in the community’s territory north and south of the English River over the next 10 years.

“The government is beginning to recognize that it is wrong to allow logging in our territory against our will,” said Grassy Narrows Chief Simon Fobister. “But Ontario continues to make plans behind our backs for destructive clearcut logging on the lands we have always used and cared for. This must stop.”

Ontario made the agreement in exchange for the staying of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice’s landmark August 2011 judgment in favour of Grassy Narrows until the appeal process is completed. The court found that Ontario does not have the power to take away the rights in Treaty 3 by authorizing industrial activity including logging.

“We have struggled for many years to save our way of life in the face of clearcut logging, which has contaminated our waters and destroyed our lands,” said Joseph Fobister, one of the Grassy Narrows trappers who initiated the legal action. “We cannot go back to the old way of business where decisions were imposed on our people and our land with devastating consequences for our health and culture.”

Grassy Narrows initially rejected the new LTMD this past December. The LTMD is part of a Forest Management Plan the Ministry of Natural Resources plans to put into effect on April 1.

“This document was developed without our participation or consent, and entirely outside the good faith negotiations we have undertaken with MNR since the 2008 Process Agreement,”

Fobister said about the LTMD in Dec. 2011. “It sets the stage for more clearcutting throughout our traditional lands, contrary to our treaty and inherent rights. And we have not given our consent.”

Robert Janes, a Grassy Narrows lawyer, said the province’s agreement not to allow logging without community consent north of the English River was “a big departure from the usual government insistence on business as usual” during lengthy appeals.

“It speaks to the strength of Grassy Narrows’ stand against unwanted clearcut logging from a legal perspective and also from a moral, and political viewpoint,” Janes said.

Grassy Narrows -  Fifty years ago this month, in March 1962 Dryden Chemicals began dumping an estimated 10 metric tonnes of mercury into the Wabigoon River, contaminating the fish which formed the subsistence and economy of three Indigenous communities Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows), Wabaseemoong (White Dog), and some members of Wabauskang who lived at Quibell.  Half a century later residents of Grassy Narrows are still grappling with the long term health, social, and economic impacts of this infamous act of environmental racism.  Mercury levels in Grassy Narrows fish have yet to return to safe levels. 

“The government has allowed the logging companies to destroy our forest and give us back only disease and sickness and death,” said Judy Da Silva, a mother and community organizer in Grassy Narrows.  “We are calling on McGuinty to help us establish a permanent Grassy Narrows run environmental monitoring station so we can inform and protect our people from the ongoing damage that pollution and logging are inflicting on our bodies and on our children.”

A 2010 study by Grassy Narrows for the First Nations Environmental Contaminants Program found that 100% of fish flesh samples from the English-Wabigoon river area had mercury levels above the level at which Health Canada recommends against consumption by people who consume a lot of fish (0.2mg/kg).  25% of samples were above the legal limit for commercially sold fish (0.5 mg/kg).   (Sellers, 2010)  An earlier study found levels as high as 140% over the legal limit in a Grassy Narrows fish (Sellers, 2005).  A wild foods study conducted by Hollow Water First Nation in nearby Manitoba found that concentrations of mercury in pickerel flesh there was far lower, and ranged from 0.12 – 0.30 mg/kg (Sellers and Scott, 2006).

“Grassy Narrows requires control over our land resources for our people to recover from the devastating impacts of mercury pollution on our health, culture, and economy,” said Grassy Narrows Chief Fobister.  “Our people have suffered far too long from harmful decisions imposed on our people against our will.”

An independent report by world renowned Japanese mercury expert Dr. Harada found that 79% of Grassy Narrows residents tested in 2002 and 2004 had Minamata Disease (MD), MD with complications, or possible MD (Harada et. Al, 2005).  Minamata Disease, a term for mercury poisoning, is named after the Japanese town of Minamata where Dr. Harada first exposed industrial mercury poisoning in the 1960’s.

This conflicts with Health Canada’s assertion from the 1990’s that 0% of Grassy Narrows patients examined were at risk due to the levels of mercury in their system, leading them to stop testing Grassy Narrows residents for mercury.  A report funded by Health Canada wrote that “there should be minimal concern for Hg in these two communities… the communities are encouraged to promote the use [of] local fish resources.”  (Chan, 2003)

And yet, in 2007 an independent Grassy Narrows fisherman was charged and pled guilty in a Kenora court to one count of unlawfully selling fish tainted by mercury contamination, contrary to the Ontario Fish Inspection Act.  MNR conservation officers from the Kenora District discovered the nets set in Grassy Narrows Lake, near the community, on Sept. 4, 2005.  Forensic tests on the fish, done at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in Winnipeg, revealed mercury levels of 1.0 parts per million, twice the acceptable level of 0.5 parts per million (Kenora Daily Miner, 2007).  320 pounds of fish from Grassy Narrows Lake were seized in the incident and the retailer was ordered to dispose of the fish, which was later dumped at the Kenora waste transfer station.

“We know too well the tragic consequences of failing to listen when the people of Grassy Narrows say no to destructive industry on their lands,” said David Sone of the environmental group Earthroots.  “It is time for Ontario to stop repeating the mistakes of the past and to respect Grassy Narrows’ vision for the the land they always have used and cared for.  We cannot allow the Province to be complicit in the poisoning of even one more Grassy Narrow child.”

Starting in March 1962 Dryden Chemicals Limited, a subsidiary of Reed Paper limited, operated a cathode chlor-alkali plant that produced chlorine and sodium hydroxide for the bleaching of paper (Shkynik, 1985).  The mercury chlor-alkali plant was demolished in 1971 (EBR Registry Number:   011-3797, 2011).

Contact:

Judy Da Silva:  807 925 2201 or cell 807 407 2109

Chief Simon Fobister: 807 407 0170

David Sone:  416-599-0152 x.13

Read the 2010 study by Dr. Sellers

Read Dr. Harada's 2004 study

More resources on mercury in Grassy Narrows

To endorse, donate, support, or for more information contact us at: 2012riverrun@gmail.com and Join Us On Facebook!

Help us spread the word using the River Run poster, flyer, or email callout! 

River Run 2012 Events

SPEAKING EVENT WITH JUDY DA SILVA

Tuesday June 5, 6:30 p.m.  Location tbd

FISH FRY

Wednesday June 6th, Noon. Queen's Park south lawn. 

MARCH AND RALLY WITH GRASSY NARROWS

Friday June 8, Noon.Grange Park (behind the Art Gallery of Ontario on Beverly)

Over 40 years ago our people were poisoned by mercury from a paper mill that contaminated our river upstream. Our people are demanding justice because we are still dealing with the ongoing health impacts of this avoidable disaster. It’s an inescapable truth that this poison will affect everyone if we don’t stand together to protect our water.

For decades the GNAA community members have been on the front lines of the movement to defend the earth and to uphold Indigenous self-determination, culture and spirituality. We have kicked out logging giant Abitibi for now, but there is still much work to be done.

Joining in River Run 2012 is a great opportunity to show your support and to join us in the fight to protect Indigenous rights and the water, air, land, and creatures that we all depend on.

Migwetch

Grassy Narrows Asubpeeschoseewagong Women's Drum Group

BACKGROUND: (more information here)

On April 6, 1970 the government of Ontario banned fishing on the Wabigoon River due to mercury contamination from a pulp mill in Dryden. Overnight unemployment in GNAA went from to 10% to 90%, a primary food staple was lost, and the devastating neurological health impacts of mercury poisoning set in.

At the time the government said it would take months for the mercury to wash out of the river system.

Forty years later, in 2010, a newly translated Japanese study on the health of GNAA residents showed that while mercury levels were going down, the health impacts of mercury poisoning in GNAA are worse now than they were in the 70's.

Now a new report  confirms these findings and reveals even more of the truth.

This has huge consequences for GNAA and neighbouring communities. It also has important implications for everyone about the long term cumulative health impacts of chroic low level mercury exposure.

The study indicates that Health Canada safety guidelines for mercury consumption are not strong enough to protect us from the nearly universal mercury contamination still being spread by coal fired power plants, incinerators, mine tailings, and other industrial processes.

Now is the time to act! Demand justice for our people, and protection for the water!

By Tanya Talaga Queen's Park Bureau

Read Justice Feldman's stay order (includes a map)

Read about the August 2011 judgement in Keewatin v. MNR

Read the Toronto Star article

Read the Wawatay News Article

In exchange the Ontario Superior Court’s landmark August 2011 judgment in favour of Grassy Narrows, which found that the Government of Ontario does not have the power to take away the rights in Treaty 3 by authorizing industrial activity including logging, will be stayed until the appeal is completed.  The legal action has taken 11 years to reach this point, and will likely be appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. 

“Finally the government is beginning to recognize that it is wrong to allow logging in our territory against our will,” said Chief Simon Fobister.  “But Ontario continues to make plans behind our backs for destructive clearcut logging on the lands we have always used and cared for.  This must stop.”

“We have struggled for many years to save our way of life in the face of clearcut logging, which has contaminated our waters and destroyed our lands,” explained Joseph Fobister, one of the Grassy Narrows trappers who initiated the legal action.  “We cannot go back to the old way of business where decisions were imposed on our people and our land with devastating consequences for our health and culture.”

The agreement is given force by an order of Justice Feldman of the Ontario Court of Appeal.  It applies to an area that is nearly half of Grassy Narrows Territory, although studies to determine the exact extent of the Territory are not complete.
 

“This is a big departure from the usual government insistence on business as usual during lengthy appeals,” said Robert Janes, lawyer for Grassy Narrows in this litigation.  “It speaks to the strength of Grassy Narrows’ stand against unwanted clearcut logging from a legal perspective and also from a moral, and political viewpoint.”

Logging in the area has been mostly suspended since AbitibiBowater surrendered their license in June 2008 under intense pressure from grassroots blockades, boycotts, and legal action.  However, the new Whiskey Jack Long Term Management Direction, made public in Dec. 2011 without Grassy Narrows' support, plans for many large clearcuts on Grassy Narrows Territory north and south of the English River in the next ten years.  The plan comes into force this April.  Grassy Narrows holds that industrial activity which can permanently impact their inherent and Treaty rights requires their free prior and informed consent as recognized by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Elder Rita Kokokopenace: “We chose and are determined to maintain our way of life by protecting and maintaining our traditional lands, every place that our people, our ancestors have lived. We continue to live in the same way of life which was given to us along with the right to live our way of life on the land that is inherently ours.”

Contact:  Chief Simon Fobister: 807-407-0170, Joseph Fobister: 807-407-2745,Robert Janes:  250-888-5269.

Kenora Daily Miner and News

Dec. 21, 2011

Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows) First Nation is rejecting Ministry of Natural Resources long-term planning for the Whiskey Jack Forest.

"This document was developed without our participation or consent and entirely outside the good faith negotiations we have undertaken with MNR since the 2008 process agreement," said Chief Simon Fobister. "It sets the stage for more clearcutting throughout our traditional lands, contrary to our treaty and inherent rights. And we have not given our consent."

Fobister said the ministry has not returned his calls and urged Minister Michael Gravelle to work with the First Nation on a government-to-government basis on the table established three years ago. The ministry's five-year plan is set to begin on April 1, 2012.

Fobister's declaration comes on the heels of a movement launched with environmental organizations in Winnipeg on Sunday to boycott all Weyerhaeuser products until a peaceful resolution is reached to end the nine-year blockade.

An online petition has already attracted over 100 signatures and pressure is being applied to suppliers, encouraging them to cease sourcing "conflict wood" from the Whiskey Jack Forest, where a logging blockade has stood since 2002.

"Your withdrawal from this territory will be a significant step in preserving what remains of the intact forest, which is crucial to the Anishinaabe way of life, estimated to be only 30 per cent of what it was before mismanagement of logging companies," a letter addressed to Weyerhaeuser and Premier Dalton McGunity reads. It calls on Weyerhaeuser to commit to "never produce any of their products with wood sourced from (Grassy Narrows) until or unless the conflicts over logging are resolved to the satisfaction of the community and opposition has ceased."

As evidence of mismanagement, it points to a July independent audit of the forest, which found "significant issues with management," including 21 recommendations condemning non-conformances to policies and laws. It also applauds wood companies Boise, AbitibiBowater, Domtar and Ainsworth, who have committed not to use wood from Whiskey Jack.

Grassy Narrows' Judy DaSilva spoke at the event alongside the Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement of Winnipeg (aka Friends of Grassy Narrows) and the Boreal Forest Network.

Communications director for the Boreal Forest Network, Suzanne McCrea, said the movement will focus on the supply chain and working with its global allies in Scandanavia and Northen Europe who have "developed an affinity with the people of Grassy Narrows." McCrea recognizes it's difficult for citizens to actively take part in the campaign, as Weyerhaeuser no longer uses its logo on paper bags it produces and has moved out of the office paper industry and urged the public to sign on to the petition posted to her organization's website.

"For the average person, it's difficult and that's why we're approaching contractors as well. The average person might be building a home or know someone who is building a home. The other avenue we're continually doing research on is packaging, boxes and bags. It's difficult unless you see (Weyerhaueser) on the packaging to know what they are but if you work with a company who purchases those products, we want you to know."

jthomps5@hotmail.com

Read the Band Council resolution denouncing the LTMD.

Read the Band Council`s Letter to the Minister.

Press Release                 December 21, 2011

Grassy Narrows Rejects MNR’s “Long Term Management Direction” for the Whiskey Jack Forest

Grassy Narrows First Nation, also called Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek (ANA), has rejected a “Long Term Management Direction” (LTMD) for the Whiskey Jack Forest developed by Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources. The LTMD, released by the MNR last week, is part of a Forest Management Plan that the MNR plans to put into effect on April 1, 2012. The LTMD represents the same old process and targets wood supply as the primary objective that led to the blockade on ANA territories.

“This document was developed without our participation or consent, and entirely outside the good faith negotiations we have undertaken with MNR since the 2008 Process Agreement,” said Chief Simon Fobister. “It sets the stage for more clearcutting throughout our traditional lands, contrary to our Treaty and inherent rights. And we have not given our consent.”

The First Nation does not accept any application of the LTMD to the community’s traditional lands. The Chief & Council along with community Elders stand united on this issue and are determined to protect the community’s way of life.

Following mediation last year, the community had expected that any forest management planning affecting their traditional lands would be “carried out in harmony” with their negotiation process, as recommended by former Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci. “But there was no harmonization,” noted Councillor Bill Fobister Sr. “We are very disappointed.”

Grassy Narrows has called on the Minister of Natural Resources to meet, but has not heard a response. Chief Simon Fobister urged Minister Gravelle to work together with them: “Instead of releasing its own plans, we would like to see Ontario work these issues out with us through government-to-government discussions. That’s why we opened up a negotiation table with Ontario a few years ago. I hope that table will be used and taken seriously by the MNR.”

Community Elders made the following statements:

Elder Eveleen Petiquan: “Elders have direct our leadership to pursue the harmonization of the ANA Ontario Process with the focus on the protection and management of ANA’s traditional lands and the Whiskey Jack Forest.”

Elder Susan Fobister: “We are determined to protect the land for generations. We need to maintain our way of life including the protection of our medicinal plants, harvesting of our sustenance such as wild rice, berries, and medicines.”

Elder Rita Kokokopenace: “We chose and are determined to maintain our way of life by protecting and maintaining the ANA traditional lands, every place that our people, our ancestors have lived. We continue to live in the same way of life which was given to us – the right to live our way of life on the land that is inherently our land – "Katanakiiying" translates to ~ the land we live our way of life by right and inherent right.”

Elder Evelyn Pahpasay: “We stand by the Chief and Council in their decision to protect the ANA traditional lands and the Whiskey Jack Forest. The Elders have the same vision and determination – this means no harvesting, no clearcuts, no disturbance of the land of the ANA traditional lands until we are understood, respected and there is harmony between our determination for the ANA traditional lands with the Minister of Natural Resources.”

Elder Margaret Keewatin: “We need a face to face meeting with the Minister as soon as possible as per decisions of the Chief, Council, Elders and our community.”

This LTMD will ultimately place our Anishinabe way of life at risk and seeks to undermine our existence on the land.

Contact:

Simon Fobister, Chief email simonfobister@gmail.com

Bill Fobister Sr., Councillor (807-925-2115)

Joseph Fobister, trapper and representative in the negotiation process (807-407-2745)

Boycott Weyerhaeuser – Stop logging in Grassy Narrows FN

Sunday, December 18, 2011, at Mondragon, 91 Albert Street, Winnipeg, 3pm.

w-ipsm, the Boreal Forest Network and Boreal Action call for a complete boycott of Weyerhaeuser (Weyco) products

Special presentation by community member, Judy DaSilva, of Grassy Narrows FN. 

free open to the media 

"Take notice that until such time as you cease all logging and sourcing in these contested territories, or as long as there is community opposition to your operation in Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinaabek traditional territory (Grassy Narrows First Nation) we will be calling for a complete boycott of all Weyerhaueser products",  the company is notified.

To sign your organization on in support of this boycott call contact borealaction@gmail.com

According to the Whiskey Jack Forest Management Plan, 324,000 cubic meters of poplar and birch is allocated from the Whiskey Jack Forest Management Unit each year to supply the Weyerhaeuser Timberstrand/Trus Joist Kenora mill. This is 42 percent of the total allocated timber harvest from the Whiskey Jack and a full 50 percent of the wood supply for the mill.

Weyco withdrawal from this territory will be a significant step in preserving what remains of the intact forest which is crucial to the Anishinaabe way of life, estimated to be only 30 percent of what it was before mismanagement by logging companies.

We maintain that it is not only unsupportable, but unethical for Weyerhaeuser to resume sourcing from the Whiskey Jack, for the Kenora, Ontario, mill, that makes Weyerhaeuser iLevel Trus Joist Timberstrand Laminated Strand Lumber (LSL), or any other forest products.

Forest products companies; Boise, Abitibowater, Domtar and Ainsworth have already agreed not to source conflict wood from Grassy Narrows territory.

Please also get your associates and supporters to endorse, support, and implement this boycott. Corporations have to listen to the people they sell to, if to no one else. Governments don't often stand up to them, and the recent court decision is being appealed. We stand with the community of Grassy Narrows.

'WE SHOULD NOT HAVE TO EXPLAIN OURSELVES TO THE GOVERNMENT AND THE COURT.

THE ANISHINABEK OF ASUBPEESCHOSEEWAGONG HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THIS PART OF THE WORLD.  THE CREATOR PLACED US HERE TO LIVE IN FREEDOM AND HARMONY WITH THE LAND, WITHOUT BOUNDARIES AND INTERFERENCE.  WE CAN'T MAKE A BOUNDRY AROUND OURSELVES AND LIMIT OUT WAY OF LIFE.

THE PADDLES OF OUR ANCESTORS HAVE TOUCHED THE WATERS OF EVERY LAKE AND RIVER ACROSS THIS LAND.  THE FEET OF OUR RELATIVES HAVE TOUCHED THE SOILS OF THE EARTH FROM HERE TO THE HORIZON.  OUR ANCESTORS HAVE PLACED THEIR HANDS ON THE ROCK FACE OF EVERY CLIFF ALONG THESE LAKES AND RIVERS. THE RED HAND PRINTS LEFT ON THIS EARTH FOREVER ARE THE SIGNATURES OF OUR GRANDFATHERS AND GRANDMOTHERS.  THIS PART OF THE WORLD BELONGS TO US.
WHAT THE CREATOR GIVES OUR PEOPLE, WE DO NOT CHANGE OR QUESTION.  
lOOK AT THE FOREST AND YOU SEE THE TREES, THE WATER, THE ANIMALS AND US.  
IN THE SILENCE OF YOUR MINDS YOU RECOGNIZE AND ACCEPT WHAT IS TRUE AND WHAT HAS ALWAYS BEEN.
WE ARE PART OF THIS LAND AND THAT IS THE TRUTH.'

WRITTEN BY:
ROBERT 
INNIWICH

By Carmelle Wolfson  

Remnants of a clear cut logging operation near Grassy Narrows, Ontario. Photo by Jon Schledewitz.

Remnants of a clear cut logging operation near Grassy Narrows, Ontario. Photo by Jon Schledewitz.

On a cold December day nine years ago, a group of young people from the Grassy Narrows First Nation lay down in front of a line of logging trucks on a snow-covered road.

Chrissy Swain, now 32, recalls that day at Slant Lake, about an hour north of Kenora, Ontario, which set off what has become Canada’s longest-standing logging blockade. “Back then youth didn’t have a voice,” Swain says. “But people started taking us more seriously when we started the blockade.”

For a long time, Grassy Narrows was accustomed to not being heard. In the 1950s, new hydro dams flooded the low-lying river valleys the First Nation had lived in, driving away the fur-bearing animals and submerging wild rice beds and sacred spiritual sites. In the early 1960s, the Canadian federal government moved the small Grassy Narrows community away from the river to a new location on a small stagnant lake off the highway to Kenora, where Chrissy Swain and her friends grew up. The 1970s brought more devastating news: the nearby Dryden pulp and paper mill was pumping mercury into the water. It eradicated the local fishing industry, leaving the community poor and sick. Hunting and trapping came to replace fishing, but in the 1990s, the provincial government of Mike Harris opened the area to clear-cut logging, which quickly drove out moose and other animals on which the community relied.

Chrissy Swain’s grandfather was one of many people affected by mercury poisoning on the Grassy Narrows and White Dog reserves. Today he shakes uncontrollably and can barely walk. Swain was just 16 when she began to realize things weren’t as they should be in her community and decided to take action. Though Swain would share in spiritual ceremonies, pick wild berries, fish and hunt, she yearned for a traditional Anishinabe life of living off the land. “I lost out on that part of my identity,” she tells me.

Decades of neglect and abuse by two levels of government have left a grim legacy, in the form of joblessness, drug and alcohol abuse, and physical and sexual violence, all of which afflict Grassy Narrows still. But a number of factors have recently come together that offer hope. One of these is a recent legal decision that could protect the land from harmful industry activity that affects aboriginal hunting and trapping. The precedent doesn’t just herald an opportunity to regenerate a devastated natural environment—it has the potential to turn the entire relationship between Canada’s First Nations and federal government upside down.

Years of mercury poisoning and clear-cutting “put them into a corner where they had to take a serious stand on both those issues,” explains Treaty 3 Grand Chief Diane Kelly. Chief Kelly is the leader selected by national assembly to preside over the 140,000-square-kilometre treaty territory encompassing two First Nations in Manitoba and 26 in northwestern Ontario, including Grassy Narrows. She says Grassy Narrows is facing these challenges head on. “The people of Grassy Narrows have been really diligent in standing up for their rights.”

The way Chrissy Swain sees it, standing up for those rights is just part of providing for her children, like any working Canadian mother. She’s been bringing her three kids to demonstrations and blockades since they were babies. Since 2008, Swain has led annual walks to raise awareness about indigenous and environmental justice. The first was over 1,800 kilometres from Grassy Narrows to Toronto, ending in a “Sovereignty Sleepover” at Queen’s Park attended by hundreds of First Nations leaders and activists across Ontario. Her last walk took her to a sun dance in Manitoba. “It was only a 300 kilometre walk,” she says casually.

 

Over the years the community has used every tactic in the book to stop industrial clear-cut logging: roving blockades of logging roads and highways, boycotts, rallies, speaking tours, and a high-profile court case. In the last few years, this persistence has started to pay off. Forestry giant Abitibi-Bowater surrendered its forestry license in 2008 and large-scale clear-cuts have stopped for now. Domtar (the largest paper producer in North America) and Boise have also committed not to source wood from Grassy Narrows traditional territory. More recently, a major legal victory for the small reserve of 900 residents asserts aboriginal hunting and trapping rights override the Province’s right to resources in the Keewatin Lands, a 50,000 square kilometre area in the Boreal Forest.

 

Grassy Narrows trappers Joseph Fobister, Andrew Keewatin, and now-deceased Willie Keewatin brought the suit in 1999 to judicial review, leading to a case in the Ontario Superior Court. “It’s quite simple,” explains 55-year-old trapper Joseph Fobister. “My right to hunt and fish are protected by treaty. When clearcut logging happens, it takes away that right.” The judge awarded them legal costs before trial, saying the issue was in the public interest and hadn’t been considered in any previous case.

“We’re not against logging. We’re just against bad logging,” says trapper Fobister. In the ’60s, he says he had good rapport with loggers, often catching rides to his family trap-line with them. Now, “there’s nothing for me to trap.” When he was young, unmarketable trees and debris were left. Today it’s a different story. “Everything is gone when you go there now.”

After years of waiting, the reserve finally got the chance to present its evidence in nearly eight months of hearings. On August 16, 2011 Justice Mary-Anne Sanderson ruled in favour of Grassy Narrows in a lengthy 300-page judgment. Ontario cannot infringe on aboriginal rights to hunt and trap enshrined in the Treaty 3 agreement signed in 1873 with the federal government, the judge said.

Joseph Fobister was choking back tears when he heard the news. “My first thought was ‘justice at last.’ It’s been a long 10 years waiting for something to happen,” he tells me following a press conference at Queen’s Park. Grassy Narrows Band Council Chief Simon Fobister is also elated: “This time the Indians won.”

---

A protest by members of the Grassy Narrows First Nation. Photo by Jon Schledewitz.

A protest by members of the Grassy Narrows First Nation. Photo by Jon Schledewitz.

Trapping isn’t the only concern over clear-cut logging. Research suggests clear-cut logging practices can increase mercury levels in the soil. This past September Chief Fobister led a Grassy Narrows delegation to Japan to raise awareness about the health effects of mercury. Mercury poisoning, called Minamata disease, was named after the Japanese city where the first case was observed, after chemical company Chisso dumped waste water into the local bay. While on a trip to Japan, Chief Fobister screened the film The Scars of Mercury, a documentary about the findings of Japanese doctor Masazumi Harada, a leading specialist in mercury poisoning. Harada has been closely studying the situation in Grassy Narrows since the ’70s. In 2010, following his fifth visit to the reserve, Dr. Harada reported the impacts of mercury poisoning are worse now, despite mercury levels having decreased. Today pregnant women are still passing this mercury to to their fetuses and babies are being born already suffering Minamata disease.

When I visited Grassy Narrows in 2006, clan mother Judy Da Silva drove me in the back of her pickup truck out to a clear-cut where she picked wild herbs and berries and hunted and trapped as a kid. A large expanse of dust and baby evergreen saplings now stands where the old mixed forest used to. Da Silva, a tireless activist, could often be found sitting near the fire at the Slant Lake blockade, while her children skipped rocks on the lake or explored the bush behind the log cabins. Now her daughter Taina, 17, is taking up the cause, giving a public talk for the first time at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education while visiting Toronto this past summer. It’s the steadfast commitment of clan mothers like Judy Da Silva that continues to inspire the next generation of activists today.

“They have given a really strong foundation that has resulted in what we see today in this decision,” says Clayton Thomas-Muller. A tar sands campaigner with the Indigenous Environmental Network, Thomas-Muller grew up as a Mathais Colomb Cree in Winnipeg, joining the Native Youth Movement at 17 where he began working with Grassy Narrows.

Thomas-Muller says the case of Grassy Narrows represents a sophisticated new strategy: a collaboration between environmental and economic justice movements, NGOs, and indigenous solidarity groups across North America, using a variety of tactics, including civil disobedience, education campaigning, and legal challenges. “What Grassy [Narrows] represents is one of those catalyst moments in our contemporary history between Indian and white relations in this country.”

“Not only was it a decision for the people of Grassy, but it was a victory for all First Nations across Canada,” he says. Resource extraction industries have disproportionately affected the health and livelihoods of First Nations communities across the country. Whether it is the tar sands in Alberta that Thomas-Muller is now focused on fighting, or the mining, hydroelectric, or timber industries, native communities are on the front lines almost everywhere in Canada. Changing the calculus of how First Nations can control what industry can do on their lands is huge.

Robert Janes, the lawyer representing Grassy Narrows trappers, agrees that the decision has pretty big implications for First Nations across Canada. “This case doesn’t just apply to logging. It indirectly applies to all major resource development that could interfere with their treaty rights.” That includes mining, hydroelectric dams, transmission lines, and more. People in Grassy Narrows are hoping the court ruling will be a spark that ignites change across Ontario, says Janes, like the 1970s decision over hydro that led to the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement being signed with the Cree nation and the Quebec and federal governments.

“The courts have become more and more direct and prescriptive in their decisions because they too are becoming frustrated that the governments aren’t following certain court decisions,” says Russell Diabo, a First Nations policy consultant who has worked closely with the Algonquins of Barriere Lake in Quebec. “If that trend continues I think it’s going to become harder for the executive branches of the government to ignore.”

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Forest near Grassy Narrows First Nation adjacent to a clear cut site. Photo by Jon Schledewitz.

Forest near Grassy Narrows First Nation adjacent to a clear cut site. Photo by Jon Schledewitz.

The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources has appealed the case to the Ontario Court of Appeal and Robert Janes says that the case will likely be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. This could drag out the issue for another five years. Janes believes that the government wants to preserve the status quo with regards to logging, but the likelihood of reaching a negotiated solution, the desired outcome for Grassy Narrows, will depend on the newly elected provincial government.

After a long legacy of government decisions that negatively affected the community, including residential schools, hydro flooding, mercury poisoning, relocation, and now the destruction of their forests from clear-cut logging, it’s easy to see why people in Grassy Narrows are taking a wait-and-see approach.

Andrew Keewatin, who initiated the legal case over a decade ago, is also skeptical. “It will be interesting to see if they’ll honour the decision now,” he says. “Most likely they’ll try to find a way around it.” Keewatin, known as “Shoon” in Grassy Narrows, teaches traditional practices to the reserve’s young people, such as building log cabins, snowshoe making, fishing, and trapping. “Trapping is no longer a means of livelihood for people on the reserve. It’s more of a favourite pastime,” he says. Life on welfare has taught trappers to limit their activity to the reserve, he explains. But he is looking towards the future. He notes that the Trappers Council is looking into ways of selling furs directly to tourists and that some businesses in South Korea have shown some interest in buying their otter furs.

How will this court ruling affect people on the front lines in Grassy Narrows? “We’re still going to be here,” says Swain, insisting the blockade will persist even after the ruling. “I’m still going to stand up for my children,” she says. “I’m teaching them, too, so that after I go they can use their voice.” What does she think about the court ruling? “It’s not a victory yet,” says Swain, explaining it’s a step forward, but there’s still a lot more work to do.

As the logging blockade enters its 10th year, Grassy Narrows First Nation is continuing to assert its sovereignty. This fall, the activists started issuing a toll on the blockaded logging road—many Americans visit the Lake of the Woods area, a popular tourist camping destination, driving past the log cabins and wig-wams at the blockade. When it comes to plans for the future, Swain isn’t short of them. She suggests that instead of the government issuing licences to campers on their lands, Grassy Narrows could set up their own camps. She also hopes they could someday take over jurisdiction from the Ministry of Natural Resources, regulating poaching and other activities on their land to create their own jobs. She says change is slow, but she sees it happening. “We’re trying to take back everything that was taken from us.”

A Kenora-area First Nation is declaring victory in an 11-year court battle to stop logging on its traditional lands.

Grassy Narrows First Nation (Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek) had challenged the province’s right to permit industrial logging on its traditional lands, saying it interferes with their rights under a treaty signed with the federal government.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Mary-Anne Sanderson has ruled that the province doesn’t have the power to interfere with the band’s treaty rights, which is a federal issue.

The band stated in a news release Wednesday that the decision sets the stage for proper recognition and protection of Treaty 3 rights and, more importantly, will help protect the Anishinaabe way of life in Northwestern Ontario.

“Grassy Narrows hopes that this will be a turning point in this battle. We expect that real protection for the endangered boreal forest and our way of life will be put in place immediately,” the band said.

The First Nation’s lawyer, Robert Janes, said the judge also noted in her 300-page decision that the federal government promised to defend the band’s rights, but hasn’t done so for many years. Janes said the ruling will likely have legal implications for similar disputes in Ontario and across Canada.
One of the trappers who launched the case in 2000, Joseph Fobister, called the ruling a victory for his people, who set up a blockade in 2002 to stop logging trucks.

“We have struggled for many years to save our way of life in the face of uncontrolled clear cutting, which has contaminated our waters and destroyed our lands,” he said.

Grand Council Treaty 3 Chief Diane Kelly said “the premise that Ontario has a licence to develop our territory so that the Anishinaabe way of life becomes a relic of history was found to be unconstitutional.

“We now have a great tool to bring to both Crown governments and say work with us, help build the economy that Treaty 3 promised in 1873 and in doing so, let us not forget that the Anishinaabe way of life is as important as the Canadian economy, today and forever,” Kelly added.

At a news conference in Toronto on Wednesday, Grassy Narrows Chief Simon Fobister urged the provincial and federal governments to come to the table to negotiate a modern understanding that would respect and implement the First Nation’s rights.

“This will require protecting the way of life of the Anishinaabe who were here before the logging industry came to these lands and will be here after the logging companies have moved on to other forests,” he said.

Grassy Narrows also called on the province to honour the spirit and intent of the court decision by moving to eliminate clear cut logging in Grassy Narrows traditional territory, and to develop a new approach to natural resource management in partnership with the community.

A spokesperson for Northern Development, Mines and Forestry Minister Michael Gravelle’s said the Ontario Superior Court decision is under review.

Meanwhile, Greenpeace applauded the Superior Court ruling.
“Today we witnessed what should be the beginning of the end of the ‘log first, ask later’ approach of the Ontario government to Aboriginal treaty areas,” said Greenpeace forest campaigner Shane Moffatt.

Greenpeace also called on the Ontario government to respect the judge’s ruling that First Nations have the right to say no to industrial development in their territories.

“This historic judgment should mark a turning point in relations between First Nations and the rest of Canada,” Moffatt said.

Justice Sanderson considered her decision for more than a full year, after hearing evidence and arguments over seven months, from Sept. 14, 2009 until May 3, 2010.

This decision is the latest development in a long-standing dispute between the community and province to end industrial clear cut logging on its traditional lands.

Government and industry officials failed to heed years of complaints from the First Nation, environmental assessment requests, meetings and public protests, giving rise to a grassroots blockade that started in 2002 that has kept logging trucks off Highway 671 since then.

In 2008, Grassy Narrows and the provnce entered into negotiations aimed at creating a positive government-to-government relationship by developing a long-term agreement for the protection, management and use of the Whiskey Jack Forest.

In April 2011, the parties entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to re-commit to that process and, among other things, plan for limited logging according to alternative forestry methods proposed by Grassy Narrows. However, the community’s concerns have not been resolved, and no substantive agreement has been reached, the band says.

Several major logging companies, including Boise, Domtar and AbitibiBowater, say they will not log within Grassy Narrows traditional territory; and little or no clear cut logging has occurred since AbitibiBowater surrendered its licence to the province in 2008.

— With files from The Canadian Press