CPTnet
June 12, 2003
ASUBPEESCHOSEEWAGONG, ON: CPTers accompany second blockade

[Note: You can view photos of the blockade referred to below by going to
www.clubphoto.com and entering "cpt@igc.org" in the Album Search line.]

Christian Peacemaker Teams volunteers Matt Schaaf and Erin Kindy documented
the second roving logging blockade put up by residents of Grassy Narrows in
a week on Tuesday, June 10. A handful of band members positioned their
vehicles and campfire at the corner of Deer Lake and Segise Roads, about 110
kilometers north of Kenora, at 8pm.

"They're not coming in," said Roberta Keesick, a Grassy Narrows band member,
a few minutes after she told the driver of an empty H.J. Derouard truck that
he could not proceed to the loading site. The truck encountered the
blockade at 4:45am Wednesday and immediately reversed toward Kenora.

Women and men from Grassy Narrow have kept up a continuous blockade for
over 180 days to protect their land and rights.

"Many more will come after us, unless the clear cutting stops," said Barbara
Fobister, a band member who kept watch at the fire through the cool night.

Residents of Grassy Narrows say they want decision making power in their
traditional land use area, including control of clear-cutting that affects
their Treaty right to hunt and trap in the Whiskey Jack Forest.

Treaty #3 ensures that native and non-native communities will share the
resources. Canada, Ontario and Abitibi claim a legal right to keep
harvesting in the forest. The Anishinaabe Nation claims that corporations,
as well as national and provincial governments have taken more than their
share.

CPT has maintained a periodic violence reduction presence at
Asubpeeschoseewagong since May 1999. Current team members are Erin Kindy
(Tiskilwa, IL; USA), Jessica Phillips (Chicago, IL; USA) and Matt Schaaf
(Winnipeg, MB; Canada).