Company accused of human rights abuses

Rainforest Action Network yesterday accused Weyerhaeuser Corp. of human rights abuses after the company refused to support viable alternatives to sourcing wood from massive clear-cut logging operations within the ancestral homeland of the Grassy Narrows First Nation.
The allegation came just two days before Weyerhaeuser’s annual shareholder meeting in Federal Way, Wash.
In addition, an Amnesty International research team this week began a four-day fact-finding mission in the traditional territory of the Grassy Narrows First Nation to document the impact of logging and other industrial development on the community’s rights and culture.
The goal of the mission is to shed light on the plight of the community and convince all parties to respect the call by Grassy Narrows’ leaders for a moratorium on all industrial development on their land without prior consent.
“The purpose of this mission is to see first-hand how the course of industrial development in their traditional territories has impacted the enjoyment of human rights at Grassy Narrows,” Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, wrote in an open letter to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty.
“The Government of Ontario is failing the people of Grassy Narrows,” Neve charged. “Decisions with a profound impact on the community’s use of the land have been made with little or no meaningful consultation, much less consent.
“Clear demonstrations of community opposition to provincial decisions have been ignored,” the letter read.
A research team of four people, including Neve, will meet with community members to discuss the impacts of government decisions on health, culture, and livelihood.
The other team members include Celeste McKay, a Métis researcher from Manitoba, Sheena Graham, an aboriginal woman from western Australia and community organizer with Amnesty International Australia, and Craig Benjamin, Amnesty Canada’s campaigner for the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
“Abitibi and Weyerhaeuser continue to rely on outdated cut-and-run practices that have devastated rural communities for decades,” charged Brant Olson, director of Rainforest Action Network’s Old Growth Campaign.
“The presence of Amnesty International in Grassy Narrows is a wake-up call to North Americans who think that human rights abuses on the homefront are a thing of the past,” he added.
The people of Grassy Narrows depend on the land for hunting, fishing, and other cultural activities—all of which have suffered due to rampant clear-cut logging on their land.
Weyerhaeuser’s Kenora iLevel Timberstrand mill is the top consumer of wood from Grassy Narrows territory.
The wood is used to produce home-building materials used throughout the U.S. by Weyerhaeuser’s home-building subsidiaries, including Quadrant Homes, Pardee Homes, Marquee Homebuilders, and Winchester Homes.
Years of opposition to the logging have been ignored by both the Canadian government and companies like Weyerhaeuser that continue to profit from logging on Grassy Narrows’ ancestral land.
In related news, activists from the Rainforest Action Network will attend Weyerhaeuser’s annual general shareholder meeting tomorrow (April 19).
RAN will support a resolution filed by Capital Strategies Consulting, Inc., requesting “a feasibility assessment to suspend wood procurement from Grassy Narrows’ territory until the free, prior, and informed consent of the community has been established.”
The resolution contends Weyerhaeuser’s ongoing procurement of wood from Grassy Narrows violates internationally-recognized human rights and established industry best practices.
Following failed attempts to resolve differences with Weyerhaeuser last month, two RAN activists were arrested for occupying a model home at a Quadrant Homes housing development.
Quadrant Homes, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Weyerhaeuser, builds its Washington homes using Weyerhaeuser building materials traced to clear-cut logging operations on Grassy Narrows land.
After chaining themselves to the roof, the activists unfurled a large banner that read: “Weyerhaeuser: We’ll Leave Your Home When You Leave Ours.”