Grassy Narrows First Nation’s chief and community leaders last week declared a moratorium on all industrial activity within its traditional territory without community consent.
The moratorium rebukes a provincial plan to increase clear-cut logging, and asserts that any development proposals must gain community consent and participation.
The moratorium was issued to government and industry leaders responsible for the ongoing destruction of Grassy Narrows traditional territory, including Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, Ontario Natural Resources and Aboriginal Affairs minister David Ramsay, Prime Minister Steven Harper, Abitibi-Consolidated, Weyerhaeuser, and other companies sourcing from the Grassy Narrows traditional territory.
Citing continued land management crises, environmental destruction, and human rights violations, Grassy Narrows is the 10th Northwestern Ontario First Nation to call for a moratorium on its traditional lands—and the first such community located within existing logging tenures.
“We have been seeking for many years a constructive solution to this untenable situation, but the response has always been to talk and log,” said Grassy Narrows Council Chief Simon Fobister.
“We cannot sit back and watch the demise of our way of life which disappears every time more cutting areas are extended to Abitibi and Weyerhaeuser,” he added.
The letter criticizes industry and government officials for a pattern of broken promises. On July 13, prompted by a one-day blockade of log trucks on the Trans-Canada Highway, Ramsay told the CBC that he was “certainly committed to deal with the issues that Grassy Narrows is bringing up.”
Five days later, Chief Fobister asserted that “the opportunity is there now for the governments to respect [our] knowledge and work with First Nations.”
Market conditions recently forced the closure of the Abitibi-Consolidated paper mill in Kenora, creating an opportunity for the province to address Grassy Narrows’ longstanding grievances while industrial demand for wood is low.
Instead, on Sept. 25, the Ministry of Natural Resources unilaterally invited proposals for the construction or expansion of mills that would result in increased logging within Grassy Narrows’ ancestral traditional territory.
“For decades, the Ontario government has assisted the corporations in annihilating the land base which we depend on as aboriginal people,” charged Steve Fobister, Grassy Narrows band councillor with the Forests portfolio.
“The government and industry have conspired to destroy much of what we hold sacred,” argued Joseph B. Fobister, a Grassy Narrows business owner, trapper, and land rights advocate.
“Our traditional values and culture are suffering and are headed towards extinction,” he stressed. “A way of life disappears with these forests.
“This has to stop so that we can reconcile, re-build our nation, and provide for our children and future generations.”
The community promises to “take more action with our supporters in the forest, in the markets, in the legislature, and in the courts to assert our rights as the Indigenous people of this land.”
The moratorium call comes as the Grassy Narrows logging blockade enters its fifth year of denying logging trucks access to the community’s traditional territory via highway 671.
“Clear-cuts are an ecological crime and a cultural nightmare for communities who depend on the boreal forest,” said David Sone of Rainforest Action Network’s Old Growth campaign.
“People don’t want to build their homes with Weyerhaeuser wood products that are stolen from Grassy Narrows,” he added.
Meanwhile, business leaders from Boise Cascade and Pro-Build Holdings, major regional purchasers, are calling on Ramsay to find a quick and equitable resolution to the escalating controversy over Grassy Narrows land use.
“We support the efforts of all parties working together to resolve the issues in the Grassy Narrows forest area in a timely fashion, and urge you to continue to work toward a balanced resolution of the land use plans,” Paul Hylbert, chief operating officer at Pro-Build Holdings, Inc., wrote in his letter to Ramsay, who also is the minister of aboriginal affairs.
“We look forward to seeing your strong leadership bring this important issue to a successful conclusion as it relates to the Grassy Narrows community in Northwest Ontario,” he added.
Pro-Build Holdings is the top professionally-oriented building material dealer in the United States. More than half of its volume consists of wood products, many of which originate from Ontario.
The company also is a significant buyer from Weyerhaeuser’s iLevel mill in Kenora.
“U.S. businesses want a resolution in Grassy Narrows that brings some stability to the situation,” said Brant Olson, Old Growth Campaign director at Rainforest Action Network.
“Industry and government should seize this opportunity to develop an exit strategy from Grassy Narrows that promotes a more sustainable vision for Ontario’s boreal forest,” he stressed.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
