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.
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 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.
Grassy Narrows youth are building two new cabins at the Slant Lake blockade site. The cabins will be used for hunting, fishing, and housing elders, guests, and community members who visit the blockade. The cabin building is part of a process of reclamation and revival for Grassy Narrows where people are using the land on their territory to empower themselves and to sustain their families, revive their culture and heal their community.
Some Weyerhaeuser iLevel products contain low levels of formaldehyde, a chemical that the U.S. government’s National Toxicology Program Report on Carcinogens recently listed formaldehyde as “known to be a human carcinogen” following a “rigorous scientific review.
