Grassy Narrows continues to advocate for ecological justice, and the right to manage their land as they see fit, otherwise known as self-determination. After more than a decade of letter-writing, meetings, protests, petitions and legal efforts, young people from the Grassy Narrows community took matters into their own hands. 

On December 2nd, 2002, the youth of the Grassy Narrows First Nation established a blockade on a logging road in their territory, and sparked what is now the longest standing and highest profile indigenous logging blockade in Canadian history.  

Despite their efforts, Abitibi and Weyerhaeuser continue to log on the more remote sections of Grassy Narrows’ territory as the community does not have the time or resources to blockade all the logging roads leading to their land.  Wood from this area continues to feed Weyerhaeuser’s Trus Joist/Timberstrand mill in Kenora, Ontario, Weyerhaeuser’s Dryden, Ontario, paper mill, Weyerhaeuser’s Ear Falls samill, and Abitibi pulp and paper mills. 

Learn more about Grassy Narrows' legal efforts to regain control over their land.

• Clearcut Logging Violates Indigenous Rights
• Failure to Consult and Accommodate
• Lawsuit's Intention

Grassy Narrows has filed a lawsuit to regain control over their territory.  Their lawsuit seeks to remove the authority of the Ontario Government, and specifically the Ministry of Natural Resources (the entity that manages logging on public land), to allow any activity – such as logging - that violates the community’s right to hunt and fish unmolested.  

The right to hunt and trap was granted to Grassy Narrows in Treaty 3, which they signed with the Canadian Government on October 3rd, 1873.  

Aboriginal and Treaty rights are recognized and affirmed under section 25 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and section 35(1) of the Constitution Act, 1982. 

The lawsuit alleges a failure on the part of government and industry to consult and accommodate the interests of Grassy Narrows, including:

• there was no consultation with the Plaintiffs or Grassy Narrows.  When consultation did occur it was conducted without the genuine intention of ascertaining the Plaintiff’s rights and interests and accommodating those rights and interests
• that any consultation was conducted under circumstances where the Crown knew or ought to have known the Plaintiffs and Grassy Narrows did not have the means to meaningfully participate in consultation
• the Crown unlawfully delegated its duty to consult to logging company, Abitibi
• there was no compensation to the Plaintiffs, namely Grassy Narrows.

Direct action is a method of stopping objectionable practices or creating more favorable conditions by using immediately available means, such as striking, boycotting or blockading activities.  It is different from indirect action which relies on tactics such as electing representatives who promise to provide remedy at some later date.  Direct action is often a tool of oppressed people who don’t have access to power.  Oppressed people are often people that  don’t have the money or the education to access the discriminatory legal system, or the political clout and resources to affect change through the electoral process. 

Given the losses they have suffered and the ineffectiveness of more traditional state-sanction means of social change (such as law suits), the youth of Grassy Narrows felt they had no choice but to engage in direct action to protect their land.  

On December 2, 2003, three young people used their bodies to block the logging roads and stop logging on a portion of their land.   The blockade has continued ever since.

Since that day, Grassy Narrows has  consistently engaged in additional direct action tactics, including sporadically setting up human-blockades on additional logging roads in their territory, as well as protests outside Ministry of Natural Resources and Abitibi, and speaking tours across Ontario, educating people about the destruction that’s taking place on their land and to their peoples.  As a result of their organizing, citizens in Winnipeg established a solidarity group, called “Friends of Grassy Narrows”, which supports the Grassy Narrows’ struggle for self-determination.

Grassy Narrows has also reoccupied their land, are reviving their cultural and spiritual practices and build traditional structures, such as log cabins, without the Government's permission.