CPTnet February 24, 2004 ASUBPEESCHOSEEWAGONG,ON: High school students speak
to Open House

By Matt Schaaf

Grassy Narrows high school students, their supporters from the nearby city
of Winnipeg and CPTers marched from the Kenora harbour front to the Lakeside
Inn on Feb. 17, 2004, bringing the message "Stop clear-cutting" to the
Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) and Abitibi-Consolidated, Inc.

Students brandished signs--"Abitibi -- mooching off Indians" and "Stop
Clear-cutting our Future"--to the chant "MNR you've gone too far!"

Ontario legislation requires MNR and Abitibi to hold a series of Open Houses
to consult Kenora residents, loggers, First Nations and other citizens
affected by the logging of the Whiskey Jack Forest, which encompasses the
Asubpeeschoseewagong community.

After years of attempting to participate in the advice-gathering process,
Grassy Narrows residents appeared at Tuesday's Open House to denounce the
"consultation." The law requires planners to "consider" the input of other
groups, but final decisions rest in the hands of MNR

In a ballroom full of maps, charts, and binders crammed with forestry data,
the students and their supporters conversed with MNR and Abitibi officials
who did their best to answer questions amid the noisy chatter of protesters
dressed as homeless woodland animals and a crowd of plainclothes Kenora
Police Service officers monitoring the gathering.

Students reported to their teachers that government and company officials
answered their questions in a circular manner, "leaving them right back
where they started."

An Asubpeeschoseewagong band member invited Abitibi and MNR employees to
watch a video documentary on the blockade in another hotel ballroom rented
by the community. Several people responded and sat in for the one hour
video, including the mother and infant daughter of an Abitibi forester.

"It was pretty much what I expected," said one Abitibi worker, who left the
room while the showing was still in progress.

At the end of the afternoon and many earnest conversations, students climbed
into their school bus and the people form Winnipeg headed for their vans
without acknowledgement from MNR that clear-cutting is a real problem. MNR
employees repeatedly encouraged protestors to write their opinions into the
comment forms provided as it pushed ahead with a process that works for only
one party -- Abitibi.

"They want that wood, at any cost. At any cost to us," said blockade
organizer JB Fobister.

This January, Abitibi contractors swept through an Asubpeeschoseewagong
elder's trap-line, obliterating his hand-cut trail and pine marten traps.
The MNR licenses Abitibi's clear-cutting operations in the Grassy Narrows
community -- a traditional territory of about 2500 square miles.

The blockade at Slant Lake remains, enforcing the boundaries of the
community until Canada, Ontario and the forestry industry begin to make
decisions with Grassy Narrows, instead of for them.