The roads to Grassy Narrows have been blockaded and logging trucks stopped for more than 100 days. The Anishinaabe people of Grassy Narrows, Ontario, are campaigning to protect their hunting, trapping and fishing rights on their 2500 square mile (6400 km2) customary lands.
What started off as a local demonstration against clear cutting on customary lands has struck a resonant chord within native and non-native communities across Canada and the USA, and support for the Grassy Narrows community is coming in from around the world.
The forest around Grassy Narrows, known as the Whiskey Jack forest, has been clear felled by Abitibi Consolidated for years. When the loggers began encroaching into sacred areas the local community decided that they had to take action. The wood supplies a pulp mill that produces newsprint on which several major American daily newspapers are printed.
The blockades began on 3 December 2002, and the protesters have adopted a successful tactic of rotating blockades around the various access roads into their customary forest lands. Solidarity blockades have been springing up all over north-west Ontario.
In January a round house was built at the Slant Lake blockade site to accommodate a Grand Council meeting at which 16 chiefs from the territory voted overwhelmingly to support the blockade with funds and human resources.
In February a big group of protesters held a demonstration in the nearby town of Kenora, in front of the headquarters of Abitibi Consolidated’s Woodlands Division and at the constituency office of the Canadian Government’s Minister of Indian Affairs, Robert Nault. Protesters are frustrated by the failure of Nault’s office and of the Ministry of Natural Resources to allow them any decision-making control over their traditional forest lands, and believe that the wholesale leasing of these lands to logging companies such as Abitibi is a violation of their rights.
You can help!
Support the blockade with money for food and camping supplies.
Send donations to Grassy Narrows First Nation Environmental Group,
The Royal Bank, 144 Main Street South, Kenora, Ontario, P9N 1S9, Canada
Account: 100-717-8, Swift code: ROYCCAT2 (cheques payable to Judy DaSilva)
Write to Robert Nault, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, House of Commons, Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6, Canada
See article 'Grassy Narrows' in this issue for more.
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