Daily Miner & News

Grassy Narrows activists take logging protest to Weyerhaeuser headquarters

February 26, 2007

Grassy Narrows activists are taking their logging protest on the road

By Reg Clayton

Grassy Narrows activists are taking their logging protest on the road. Four residents of the First Nation accompanied a Rainforest Action Network organizer and a film maker departed by car Friday for Federal Way, Washington – the headquarters of forestry giant Weyerhaeuser. There they intend to present their demands for an end to forestry operations on the community’s traditional land directly to company CEO Steve Rogel.

“The message we’re giving is to stop the decimation and destruction of our land and destroying the culture and everything we grew up with,” said activist Maria Swain in a telephone interview. “We’re not going away, we’re not giving up and we will continue to stand up for our community.”

Billed as ‘The Road to Seattle Tour’ the activists will document the journey with stops along the way to promote indigenous rights at gatherings in Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina, Edmonton and Vancouver before continuing on to Washington state. The protesters also object to a Weyerhaeuser subsidiary company marketing a line of homes built with lumber originating from the Whiskey Jack Forest under a ‘Built Green’ label.

The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources maintains that cutting licences and reforestation contracts for the Whiskey Jack Forest are issued in compliance with provincial forest management plans under the Crown Forest Sustainability Act.

The Rainforest Action Network champions the cause of indigenous peoples in Canada and South America to secure protection for their traditional way of life and the old growth and boreal forest ecosystems where they live. Grassy Narrows protesters, First Nation and Rainforest Action Network supporters engaged in civil disobedience events last summer, blocking traffic along Highway 17 and logging trucks on English River Road. Grassy Narrows protesters have maintained a ‘blockade’ on a logging road to the Whiskey Jack Forest which passes through their community since December 2003.

Rainforest Action Network communications manager Brianna Cayo Cotter in San Francisco suggested such actions will escalate if the protesters’ concerns are ignored. “If their demands are not met, Weyerhaeuser will face a very elevated public campaign against them in Canada and the U.S.,” Cotter said.

Rainforest Action Network representative David Sone is accompanying the protesters on the road. Sone maintains the network isn’t opposed to sustainable forestry but objects to clearcut logging practices which ignore the rights of indigenous people and leave mills closed and forestry workers without jobs after the trees are harvested.

“The recent mill shut downs in Kenora demonstrates there was no new protection or changes in First Nations land rights during that time,” he said. “Depending a community’s economy on a multinational logging corporation is not a sound way to pursue a healthy local economy or protect the ecology we depend on.”

Sone said the Rainforest Action Network hopes to see a better model for economic and community development in the north that meets local needs through a locally controlled and sustainable economy that respects the rights of First Nations.

“Company shareholders and executives are running the show for profit and not in the best interests of the Grassy Narrows First Nations, loggers and other people in Kenora,” he said.

Grassy Narrows Chief Simon Fobister expressed similar sentiments in a news release. “We have been seeking for many years a constructive solution to this untenable situation, but the response has always been to talk and log. We cannot sit back and watch the demise of our way of life, which disappears more every time more cutting areas are extended to Abitibi and Weyerhaeuser,” stated Fobister.

In January, band leaders declared a moratorium on all industrial activity on their territory without their consent.