Grassy Narrows First Nation leaders are upset by Natural Resources Minister David Orazietti’s remarks about proposed logging on what the band calls its traditional territory.
Chief Simon Fobister said Thursday that “the minister’s statement (on the draft Whiskey Jack Forest management plan 2012-2022) is false, and completely misrepresents Ontario’s plans for another decade of clearcut logging on our territory against our will.”
Fobister’s comments respond to a claim by Orazietti that under the forestry plan, there are no harvest blocks within Grassy Narrows’ self-identified traditional land-use area.
Fobister suggested that “it is time for the minister to clear up the confusion that he has caused with his false statement, and to answer once and for all: Will the Wynne government force logging on our community against our will, knowing that logging would release more mercury into our food chain?”
The band says a ministry map of the draft plan shows large clearcuts scheduled to start in April throughout Grassy Narrows territory. Some of the clearcuts are within one kilometre of the reserve boundary, and a stone’s throw from the English River. The plan outlines 142 clearcuts in the first five years of the plan, the largest of which is 79 square kilometres, the band says.
In the legislature Thursday, Kenora MPP Sarah Campbell said Orazietti should “do the right thing and consult with Grassy Narrows to obtain their consent regarding any forestry plans on their traditional lands.”
Orazietti said “we are certainly committed to working with the Grassy Narrows First Nation. We value their involvement and their participation in forest harvesting.
“Under the contingency plan, there is no planned harvesting blocks within Grassy Narrows traditional lands,” he said.
Grassy Narrows sent an open letter on Oct. 31 to Premier Kathleen Wynne rejecting the forest management plan, which is in the final stage of approval.
The plan sets out a schedule to clear-cut much of what little mature forest remains on Grassy Narrows territory after decades of large-scale industrial logging. The band claims that will further erode Aboriginal treaty rights and the ability of the community to sustain their families and to practice their culture through fishing, hunting, trapping, medicine harvesting, ceremony and healing.
The Kenora-area forest is also subject to a long-standing court action by Grassy Narrows.
In September, the Supreme Court of Canada granted the band leave to appeal their treaty rights and clearcut logging.
The case, Keewatin v the Ministry of Natural Resources, challenges Ontario’s jurisdiction to award logging and mining licences on a vast tract of Treaty 3 lands north of the English River (the Keewatin Lands).
Grassy Narrows appealed to the Supreme Court in March when Ontario’s highest court ruled that the province has the right to “take up” treaty land for mining and forestry.
The First Nation challenged Ontario’s right to permit industrial logging on its traditional lands, saying it infringed on their hunting and trapping rights under a treaty signed in 1873.
Logging in Grassy Narrows territory has largely been suspended since AbitibiConsolidated (then, AbitibiBowater) surrendered its licence in June 2008 under intense pressure from grassroots blockades, boycotts and legal action. The band is acting on its claims that the new Whiskey Jack plan, made public by the province in December 2011, calls for clearcutting some Grassy Narrows territory over the next 10 years