Members of the Grassy Narrows Youth Group and several of their supporters arrived in Kenora on Tuesday morning, Aug. 19, to deliver a letter containing a list of demands to the management of the Weyerhauser Timberstrand Mill.

The youth group’s demands to the forest products company were simple: that Weyerhauser make a binding commitment not to accept wood harvested from inside Grassy Narrows’ Territory, that they respect the First Nation’s moratorium on industrial development in their territory, and most controversial of all, that Weyerhauser permanently shut down its Kenora mill.

“Over the past 10 years they’ve been planning to take the trees away from our sacred territory and the youth in Grassy Narrows are waking up and will not allow that to happen,” said the youth group’s 13-year-old spokesperson, Corissa Swain. “We’re here today to remind them that we will not allow them to take trees from our territory.”

The group of about 25 people arrived at the mill in several vehicles but was not allowed past the parking lot gate outside the mill building. Instead, the company sent out two representatives to greet the protestors and receive the letter from Swain.

The pair of representatives said that they were not in a position to answer questions put to them by the youth group members and their supporters about Weyerhauser’s intentions regarding the use of wood harvested from Grassy Narrows’ territory.

The issue of logging inside the Whiskey Jack Forest where Grassy Narrows’ traditional territory lies is still a divisive one. The First Nation recently lost its case before the Supreme Court of Canada arguing that the province did not have the right to unilaterally issue logging permits inside their traditional territory.

Throughout the legal process at the high court, the Grassy Narrows Youth Group – which is not an official part of the First Nation’s government – vowed that they would take “direct action” to prevent any logging inside their territory regardless of whether the court ruling went against them or not.

Despite the loss at the Supreme Court, the band is continuing negotiations with the provincial government over the plans to harvest inside the Whiskey Jack Forest for the next eight years, including cutting areas around Grassy Narrows starting in 2017.

Weyerhauser says it intends to try to remain as neutral on the issue as possible and let the negotiations between Ontario and Grassy Narrows take their course.

“We’ve heard these kinds of comments made before, but we have to stress that the planning for the Whiskey Jack Forest is being managed by the Province of Ontario, not by any specific forest products company,” said Weyerhauser’s public affairs manager Wayne Roznowski. “Long-term we would be interested in an opportunity to work with Grassy Narrows and other First Nations – not just on the Whiskey Jack, but on the Kenora Forest as well.”

As for the demands in the letter from the youth group, Roznowski says that company appreciates their position and is trying to take a big-picture perspective on what they youth group is saying, but the fact of the matter is that Weyerhauser does intend to start using timber harvested from the Whiskey Jack when it becomes available.

“Long-term we do need wood from the Whiskey Jack Forest to maintain the viability of the Kenora operation and the 200 people we employ,” said Roznowski. “We’ve already been incurring extra costs to source wood from places farther away. Its always better to use the trees that are closest to the mill.”

Weyerhauser points out that the forestry management plan for the Whiskey Jack does not include any logging inside Grassy Narrows’ territory in the short-term. But there is logging scheduled inside the territory during Phase 2, which begins in 2017.

When asked if the company would agree not to use wood from Grassy’s territory if no agreement had been reached before Phase 2 logging started, Roznowski said that was too far in the future to speculate about.

The demand that Weyerhauser shut down its Kenora mill is out of the question says the company. Roznowski described the inclusion of such a demand as being “a bit out there.”

“Did we actually think they were going to shut down? No. Does that make it an unreasonable demand? No,” states Alex Hundert from the youth group.

Hundert says the demands in the letter were listed in a particular order with their most important demand for a binding promise from the company not to use timber from inside Grassy Narrows’ territory right at the top. But, he explained, it is the position of the group that the mill should be closed so that all First Nations’ territories be preserved and the sacredness of the trees respected.

“The youth group recognizes that most of the land around here is the territory of autonomous Anishinaabe nations, and would like to not see that land destroyed,” said Hundert,

The group was not swayed by the prospect of losing jobs at the mill, saying that there were other ways to make money that didn’t require accepting an economy based on the large-scale destruction of the land.

When asked if it would be satisfactory if Weyerhauser agreed with the first demand to not use wood from Grassy traditional territory, opinion in the group appeared to split. Some were emphatic that it would not be good enough, but Hundert was more circumspect.

“If Weyerhauser were to commit to not taking wood from Grassy Narrows territory in a public and binding way, it would go a long way towards a lot of things,” he said.