Copy the letter below to tell your friends and family about the petition to free Grassy Narrows.

Dear Friend

In Ontario, Canada, an indigenous community called the Grassy Narrows First Nation are being subjected to human rights abuses.  Logging companies Weyerhaeuser and Abitibi are clear-cut logging their land without the community’s consent and converting the wood into Xerox copy paper and building products for the U.S. housing industry.  This exploitation is robbing the community of economic opportunities, and destroying their way of life.    

Fortunately, the Grassy Narrows Community is taking a stand.  On December 2nd, 2002, Grassy Narrows established a blockade on a logging road in their territory, sparking the longest standing and highest profile indigenous logging blockade in Canadian history. 

Three years later, logging is still taking place on remote sections of their land where the community does not have the resources to block all of the logging roads in their territory.  Weyerhaeuser and Abitibi refuse to stop the logging, leave the land and respect the community’s right to self-determiniation within their traditional territory. 

Please sign the petition to pledge your support to the Grassy Narrows First Nation’s struggle to stop Weyerhaeuser and Abitibi from logging without their consent on their land, and secure the right to self-determination within their traditional territory.  www.FreeGrassy.org.

Letters to the editor are a powerful way of influencing public opinion. The editorial section is one of the newspaper’s most popular sections.  Check out our "news section" for recent articles that have been published about Grassy Narrows and then get cracking.

Use our sample letter as a guide.

Dear Editor,

I am responding to the article on Grassy Narrows entitled "name title and date of article."

The newsprint that this letter is printed on could have originated from Canada’s vast, magical and ancient Boreal Forest, one of the largest intact forests in the world and home to about 600 indigenous communities.

Unfortunately, the Boreal Forest and the future of its inhabitants are being threatened by logging companies, such as Weyerhaeuser and Abitibi, in order to meet unsustainable demand for wood and paper products.

Fortunately, some communities are fighting back.  One community, the Grassy Narrows First Nation in Ontario, has never agreed to allow logging corporations, Weyerhaeuser and Abitibi, to log on their land and turn their forests and their way of life into newsprint, Xerox copy paper and Trus Joist building materials.  On December 2nd, 2002, the community set up a blockade on logging roads on their territory, sparking one of the longest running and highest profile blockades in Canadian history.

But logging is still taking place on remote corners of their land, and they are asking for our help.  Please help free Grassy Narrows by demanding that newspapers and retail stores in your area stop buying wood fiber or products that come from endangered forests or regions that are subject to indigenous controversy.

Yours Sincerely,

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