CPTnet
May 29, 1999
KENORA, ON: CPT completes fact-finding mission with Grassy Narrows First
Nation people

On May 27, CPTers Doug Pritchard (Toronto, ON), Wes Hare (Richmond, IN) and
Cole Hull (Seattle, WA) completed a two week fact-finding mission with the
Grassy Narrows First Nation People, who had invited CPT to witness clear-cut
logging on their traditional land use area by Abitibi Consolidated Corp.

The Grassy Narrows First Nation is an Objibwe community of some 700 persons
on a 14 sq. mile reserve in Northwestern Ontario. The Objibwe is a regional
group of the larger Algonquin people.

Although there has been logging in the area of the Grassy Narrows community
since the 1950's, and even clear-cutting in recent years, the cutting is
getting much closer to the community and is more apparent than previously.

The Grassy Narrows community felt pushed to the edge in Feb. 1999 when the
Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) approved Anitibi-Consolidated
Inc.'s logging plan which reaches through the year 2019, and includes
substantial clear-cutting of Grassy Narrow s Traditional Use Land Area.

Tradional land use is gaining some acceptance with judicial and
policy-making bodies. Grassy Narrows claims 2500 sq. miles of adjoining land
as Traditional Use lands that they have used for hunting/fishing/gathering.

Anitibi claims to be the largest newsprint company in the world, and is a
major employer (though not of Grassy Narrows people) in the Kenora
community, the main town of the area, some 70 km. to the south.

Grassy Narrows has already gone through a major health crisis because
upstream pulp & paper mill discharge poisoned their waterways with mercury
in the early 70's. Their wild rice harvesting operations have also been
destroyed by fluctuations in water levels caused by Ontario Hydro s
operation of two nearby dams.

An Environmental Committee of several persons has formed to take leadership
in voicing community concerns. In recent months the Grassy narrows
community has conducted information pickets at the MNR office and at a VIP
dinner in Kenora, and on the Trans-Canada Highway. They have also posted
signs on roadways leading into their Traditional Use Land Area, but these
were immediately removed by the Ministry of Transport. Following a recent
meeting in Kenora with the provincial Ministry of the Environment (MoE), the
Environmental Committee is waiting for the Ministry s response.

Pritchard, Hull and Hare took and "emotionally exhausting" tour of land
cleared by Antibi, and saw scarification (the furrowing of clear-cut land to
prepare for tree-planing), some limited tree-planting operations, and the
slow growth of the monoculture "forests" that replace the existing boreal
forest. They saw the trash left by operations, clear-cutting right up to
streams and shores of clear lakes and streams, and a tremendous amount of
timber left cut and rotting.