Mississauga.com

By Louie Rosella

Mar 23, 2011

The blockade has been up nearly nine years.
And, for the people of Grassy Narrows, an Anishnabe First Nation in northwest Ontario consisting of about 1,200 people, it won't come down until the industrial logging stops.
"The clear-cutting of the land, and the destruction of the forest is an attack on our people," said Roberta Kessik, a blockader and one of three Grassy Narrows members who visited Erin Mills United Church this evening to discuss Aboriginal issues. "The land is the basis of who we are. Our culture is a land based culture and the destruction of the land is the destruction of our culture. And we know that is in the plans."
Industrial logging is permitted by the province of Ontario against the will of the Grassy Narrows community, compounding the damage that the legacy of residential schools, hydro damming, relocation, and mercury poisoning from a paper mill upstream has done to Grassy Narrows’ health, culture, and economy, said another Grassy Narrows member, Judy Da Silva.
The Grassy Narrows blockade, now in its ninth year, was established to stop clear-cut logging on the community’s territory, and to assert control over the lands they depend on for hunting, gathering and spirituality.
"Humans have to think about how we use the earth so that our future generations will survive," she said. "We see it and we have to live with the devastation."
The blockade, which spans several hundred metres and includes a camp, log cabin and sacred fire, is one of the longest running Indigenous land protests in Canadian history.
"We had enough," said Da Silva in her and her community's decision to set up the blockade. "Someone had to tell the logging companies that enough is enough."
The blockade has halted logging at Grassy Narrows, but the future is uncertain, members say. The province and the community have entered into talks about the long term management of the forest, but the province has never ruled out renewed logging, with or without the community's consent.
Da Silva said no businesses or loggers have crossed the blockade. But, one logging company has made the inconvenient, four-hour trek north in the rural community to continue doing business about five kilometres off the Reserve, continuing to cut Jack Pines, Poplars and Spruce trees, among others, to use for manufacturing.
Da Silva said if it's allowed to continue, it will nay be a matter of time before they reach Grassy Narrows.
Amnesty International meanwhile, has urged the provincial government to apply the highest standard of protection to the people of Grassy Narrows.
It urged the province to respect the moratorium called by the people of Grassy Narrows so that their rights would not be further eroded by continued large-scale resource extraction activities taking place against their wishes.
Amnesty International also called on companies buying wood and wood fibre from the territory to “work toward a voluntary suspension of logging in the Grassy Narrows traditional territory and/or establish alternative sources for wood fibre, taking into consideration the fact that the people of Grassy Narrows have not given their consent to large-scale logging in their traditional territory."
Tonight's event was part of a speaking tour organized by Oakville-Mississauga KAIROS, part of a national organization that unites churches and religious organizations in faithful action for ecological justice and human rights, as well as Erin Mills United Church and the Christian Peacemaker Aboriginal Justice Team.
lrosella@mississauga.net