The CPT Aboriginal Justice team continued to support local peacemakers (Algonquin and settlers) in their struggle against uranium exploration and mining on Algonquin land. They participated in community efforts to prepare for and organize around the trials of Algonquin leaders and settlers held on 18 March at the Kingston Courthouse. The team also continued efforts to enlist local churches by visiting congregations, building relationships with local leaders and encouraging dialogue around issues of aboriginal justice and uranium mining.

The CPTnet editor regrets that she left Carolyn Hudson's byline off the 9 April CPTnet release,  "KINGSTON, ON REFLECTION: Holy Week injustice."

Tuesday afternoon of Holy Week, I was sitting in the front row of a Kingston, ON courtroom. The Thunder Bay Superior court had just sentenced six Kitchenuhmaykoosib community leaders to six months imprisonment for resisting mining in their area. Five weeks earlier, in the room where I was sitting, a judge had imposed a six-month sentence on Robert Lovelace, Past Chief of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nations, and staggering fines on Lovelace and Lovelace’s Co-Chief, Paula Sherman. I wondered if the court would impose similar sentences on my husband, John, also charged with contempt of court.

The press conference began. Judy Finlay, former Child Advocate for Ontario and now southern co-chair of Mamow Sha-way-gi-kay-win (North South Partnership for Children), told us that her counterpart, the northern co-chair had been jailed the previous week. The Ontario courts sentenced Donny Morris, chief of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI), along with five other leaders from his community, to six months in prison for opposing mining operations on their traditional territory. Ms. Finlay lamented that by jailing Aboriginal leaders and thus removing them from their communities, Ontario repeats the actions of colonial governments that seized children from these communities and placed them in residential schools.

Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) seeks participants for a delegation to Robertsville Mine (about eighty km north of Kingston, ON) where two Algonquin First Nations communities are struggling to protect their unceded land from uranium exploration and mining.

On 18 March 2008, Frontenac Venture Corporation (FVC) and the Ontario courts declined to prosecute three non-Aboriginal people who committed the same acts of civil disobedience that members the Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation committed. In contrast to the leniency shown John Hudson, Frank Morrison and David Milne, the courts forced Chief Doreen Davis and war chief Earl Badour of the Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation to agree not to interfere with Frontenac Ventures Corporation's access to the Robertsville mine site. Davis and Badour, additionally face court costs, potentially in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Idaho-based paper company, Boise Inc., recently agreed to honour a request by Chief Simon Fobister to stop using wood fibre from the territory of Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows First Nation). “Boise's decision puts pressure on the Ontario government which licensed logging activity against the wishes of the First Nation community,” notes Rebecca Johnson, Administrative Coordinator for CPT-Canada.

We, the undersigned organizations, are writing to you concerning Ontario’s Mining Act.

A number of recent examples underscore the urgent need for changes to the Act.

Today, six members of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwg (KI) First Nation in northern Ontario were sentenced on contempt charges for their peaceful opposition to drilling for platinum on their traditional lands. They consider it to be their responsibility to protect their lands from drilling in the Boreal Forest in northern Ontario.

Recently, the Ardoch Algonquins were sentenced in court for opposing uranium exploration in a part of eastern Ontario which they have never surrendered and which is currently part of the Algonquin land claim negotiations. Ardoch spokesperson Bob Lovelace was sentenced to six months detention and fined $25,000. In addition, the community was fined $10,000 and Chief Paula Sherman $15,000. Leaders of the neighbouring Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation will also be sentenced for contempt next week. Leaders of the neighbouring Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation and non-Aboriginal landowners and supporters of the Algonquin will also be in court this week.

Christian Peacemaker Teams Canada calls on supporters to call or write to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty urging him to:

- fulfill the Ontario government's duty to consult with Algonquin First Nations over proposed uranium mining on land to which they have made a legal claim; and
- direct the Attorney-General of Ontario to undertake a review of the February 15th sentencing of Algonquin leader Robert Lovelace to six months in jail and a fine.

I had never been to court before, but a heaviness fell over me as I walked past the huge stained glass windows depicting ‘War,’ ‘Victory,’ and ‘Triumphal Return.’ They seemed to illustrate the adversarial nature of court process, requiring clear victory or defeat.