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.
Last Friday marked the 5th anniversary of the logging road blockade at Grassy Narrows. Judy DaSilva, a clan mother from Grassy Narrows and member of the grassroots effort to end clear cut logging there, offered these thoughts.
Four clan mothers from Grassy Narrows have built a wigwam on an isolated logging road in the northern end the community’s traditional land use area to push for an end to the destruction caused by industrial development.
In March, Amnesty International released a briefing to the United Nations, criticizing Canadian officials for allowing logging to proceed in Grassy Narrows over the clear opposition of the community and in violation of Indigenous rights protected by Treaties and other international law.
Read the new report linking massive clear-cut logging operations in Grassy Narrows to new American homes marketed as “environmentally friendly" by Quadrant Homes, a subsidiary of Weyerhaeuser, the largest lumber company in the world.