Canadian Press

First Nation declares ban on industry

January 18, 2007

A northwestern Ontario First Nation is trying to stop clear- cutting within its traditional territory by declaring a moratorium on all industrial activity without its permission.

Grassy Narrows spokesman Joe Fobister said the moratorium on logging in the territory north of Kenora, doesn't have any legal weight, but is a strong statement that clear-cutting is hurting the aboriginal community.

The First Nation hopes this declaration will prompt the province to stop the clear-cutting that Fobister said disrupts aboriginal trap lines. "We've tried everything else. Nothing is working. The government has totally ignored our concerns. Logging continues to this day. It's business as usual.'

Meanwhile logging is closing in on the community, Fobister said. "Our culture is disappearing with logging, our spirituality, the list goes on. The government has to be serious about resolving the problem.'

The community isn't opposed to logging generally, but objects to the practice of clear-cutting, he added.

But Anne-Marie Flanagan, spokeswoman for Natural Resources Minister David Ramsay, said clear-cutting is allowed in Northern Ontario, and is done in a way that mimics natural disasters like forest fires and strong winds.

"It is an acceptable practice,' Flanagan said.

Aboriginals are consulted when it comes to development in their traditional territory, and the government includes aboriginals in its forest management planning, she added. "But the duty to consult does not mean that aboriginal communities have a veto.'

Two Ontario environmental groups will join the fight against logging in the province's north. The Wildlands League and Sierra Legal Fund plan to file a submission to the province's environmental commissioner today criticizing Ontario's handling of its forestry resources and its lack of consideration of aboriginals.

"If a bank were to manage the finances of its clients in the manner that the Ontario government manages the wood from its public forests, it would be bankrupt very quickly,' Trevor Hesselink of the Wildlands League said in a statement to be released today.

The moratorium call comes as a Grassy Narrows blockade enters its fifth year of denying loggers access to community territory via Highway 671. Provincial police charged 21 protesters following two related blockades last summer on a nearby highway.