CPTnet
6 September 2007
EASTERN ONTARIO: CPT accompanies Ardoch Algonquin and Shabot Obaadijiwan
First Nations blockading uranium mining on unceded territory

On 3 September 2007, CPT sent a violence reduction team to accompany the
Ardoch Algonquin and Shabot Obaadijiwan First Nations in their continuing
blockade of uranium mining exploration on their unceded territory.

An Ontario Superior Court issued an injunction against the blockade on 31
August 2007. The injunction grants mining exploration company Frontenac
Ventures Corporation "immediate" and "unfettered" access to the 8,000
hectares it has staked and is currently drilling. The Ontario Provincial
Police have not said whether they intend to enforce the injunction.

Ardoch Algonquin First Nation is an Anishinaabe community of about 700
members located in the Madawaska, Mississippi, and Rideau watersheds
(Frontenac and Lanark counties in eastern Ontario.) They have not ceded
title to the lands currently under exploration by Frontenac. Canadian law
established Aboriginal title to unceded land in the Royal Proclamation Act
of 1763, and this title was also enshrined in Canada's 1982 constitution.

Frontenac Ventures has undertaken a two-year, 3.5 million dollar exploration
program without the consent of the Ardoch and Shabot communities. Open pit
uranium mining could occur if Frontenac determines that exploiting the
uranium deposit is economically feasible.

The Ardoch and Shabot First Nations are calling for the end of all mining
exploration, staking and drilling by Frontenac.

The environmental consequences of uranium mining include the contamination
of ground water with heavy metals and radioactive materials, the dispersal
of radioactive dust and the release of radioactive gases into the
atmosphere. Once the uranium ore is processed, 85% of the radioactivity
remains in the tailings, which require management for hundreds of thousands
of years.

Local, non-aboriginal opposition to uranium exploration is fierce. Over two
hundred local residents gathered with an hour's notice to drown out the
reading of the injunction. Community action groups have been organizing
petitions, letter-writing campaigns, and even a tax revolt. People have
been bringing food to the blockade on a daily basis since it began on 28
June 2007.

For more information, go to the Ardoch website: http://www.aafna.ca/