[Indigsol] Fwd: [MWC-News] Uranium mine blockade: OPP hesitates after judge's ruling

[Ben Powless]

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From: Dawn Paley <dawn at miningwatch.ca>
Date: 29 Aug 2007 09:41
Subject: [MWC-News] Uranium mine blockade: OPP hesitates after judge's
ruling
To: news at lists.miningwatch.ca

http://www.thewhig.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=673021&catname=Local+News&classif=

OPP hesitates after judge's ruling; Police take no immediate action
on uranium mine blockade

Frank Armstrong
Local News - Wednesday, August 29, 2007 @ 00:00

A group of natives and police officers huddled inside a screened tent
yesterday to discuss a judge's order to remove protesters barricading
a proposed uranium site near Sharbot Lake.

All eyes were fixed on Insp. Garry MacPherson, head of the OPP's
Aboriginal Relations Team, as he spoke to the group in slow, measured
words.

Dozens of non-native onlookers crowded around the tent's perimeter to
listen to the man in the dress shirt and tie and to the native
leaders around him.

MacPherson arrived yesterday morning at the scene of the blockade by
local Algonquins who have been preventing a uranium prospecting
company from entering the site since June 29.

A judge on Monday ordered the Algonquins to leave the site or risk
being forced off by police.

MacPherson said OPP lawyers haven't gone over the written order,
which was released Monday, and didn't yet have any plans to act. If
it's determined the OPP must follow the judge's order, the OPP will
warn the protesters ahead of time, he said.

"We're not going to sneak in. We're not going to come in en masse or
anything like that," he told the Algonquins around him.

The hour-long meeting involved three OPP officers, including
MacPherson, and six Algonquins, leaders of the Ardoch and Shabot
Obaadjiwan First Nations. It was held in the form of a traditional
First Nations pipe ceremony and telling circle, a native tradition
that is meant to provide courage and encourage people to speak the
truth. The person who is speaking holds an eagle feather, which is
passed from person to person.

A few metres away, more than 30 cars lined both sides of the road,
the vehicles of dozens of area residents and Algonquins who had heard
the news about the judge's order and came to lend their support.

The Algonquins took over the entrance to the site between Clarendon
Station and Mississippi Station on June 29, the national day of
aboriginal action.

Oakville-based Frontenac Ventures has been prospecting for uranium
there, but has been blocked from entering by the Algonquins who fear
a uranium mine could destroy the region's water table.

They say the provincial government shouldn't have allowed Frontenac
Ventures to pros-pect there before consulting with them because the
land belongs to them.

According to an agreement signed by the British in 1873, any land not
sold to or surrendered to the Crown belongs to their native allies.

Frontenac Ventures is suing the Algonquins for $77 million and is
seeking a court order that would permanently force the protesters off
their land.

Last week, Ontario Superior Court judge Gordon Thomson issued a
temporary order for the Algonquins to remove all their gear from the
site, but didn't specifically say they must go.

He also didn't authorize the provincial police to remove anyone who
disobeyed in hopes the two sides would work out a solution.

After it became apparent neither side would negotiate, Thomson issued
the interim injunction, which tells the protesters to leave and
authorizes police to arrest or remove anyone who contravenes the
order.

Algonquins and non-natives yesterday said they won't let Frontenac
Ventures onto the site and said Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty must
step up to the plate to end the standoff.

"We will keep this as peaceful as possible, but we will not be
pulling down the barricade," said Shabot Obaadjiwan chief Doreen
Davis.

A spokesperson from the premier's office said yesterday they could
not comment specifically on the Clarendon mine site case as it is
before the court.

Some protesters voiced fears of a repeat of Ipperwash or Caledonia,
where native land claims disputes have led to violence.

In Caledonia, police, natives and non-native protesters have clashed
over a four-month aboriginal blockade to protest a housing
development that was being built on land local natives claimed as
their own.

During the 1995 Ipperwash crisis in Ipperwash Provincial Park,
several members of the Stoney Point Ojibway band occupied the park in
order to assert their claim to the land. The occupation led to a
violent confrontation between protesters and the OPP, who killed
protester Dudley George.

MacPherson said the OPP have learned from those two experiences and
don't intend to repeat history.

He told the protesters that the interim injunction could probably
arrive in the hands of a sheriff within a day and at some point the
sheriff would visit the site.

"That may be today," he said. "If that does occur, our intent would
be simply to maintain the peace for everybody and that the order
would be read, period."

MacPherson wouldn't speak to reporters after the meeting.

Snow Road resident Carolyn Hudson, a United Church minister, said
she's impressed by the diplomatic efforts of the provincial police.
"It was very reassuring to hear the OPP talking about the need for
communication before anything happens," said Hudson, who has helped
lead a letter-writing campaign to politicians.

Harold Perry, honourary chief of the Ardoch Algonquins, said he's
pleased that the OPP have kept open lines of communication, but he's
wary of what's to come.

"It's great to have those conversations and dialogue going on, but at
the same time, we can't be totally trusting of what they say," Perry
said. "We have to assume they're going to come in and try to move us
out."

He hopes this struggle will go more smoothly than the last time local
Algonquins asserted their native rights.

In the 1980s, when the federal government decided to allow a Manitoba
businessman to harvest the wild rice plants that the local Algonquins
had harvested by hand for centuries, hundreds of people came together
to block the access roads.

Tensions mounted and police arrived in the small community of Ardoch
by the dozens.

"There was a lot of hostility and pushing and shoving," Perry said.
Police brought two helicopters, hired tow trucks and brought in paddy
wagons to haul people away, recalled Perry.

Nonetheless, the Algonquins held their ground for 27 days and in 1982
the federal government reversed its decision.

The hearing for the permanent injunction application will begin Sept. 20.

farmstrong at thewhig.com

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070828.wuranium0828/BNStory/National/home

Another native protest gathers steam

Canadian Press
August 28, 2007 at 5:05 PM EDT

KINGSTON, Ont. - Aboriginal protesters blocking access to a proposed
uranium mining site in eastern Ontario are calling for the provincial
government to settle the dispute after a judge ordered them to leave
the property.

Ardoch Algonquin First Nation co-chiefs Paula Sherman and Randy Cota
again called on Premier Dalton McGuinty or Aboriginal Affairs
Minister David Ramsay to step in and help resolve issues that led to
the protest.

Justice Gordon Thomson of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in
Kingston issued a new injunction on Monday, after Frontenac Ventures
asked the court to remove the protesters from the land.

The company, which is prospecting the property for uranium, is also
suing the protesters for $77-million.

Members of the Algonquin and Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nations have
been camped out since June at the entrance to the land near Sharbot
Lake, about 80 kilometres north of Kingston.

The Algonquins say the land is theirs because in 1873 the British
government signed an agreement proclaiming land not sold to or
surrendered to the Crown belongs to their First Nations allies.

The protesters say the provincial government shouldn't have given
Frontenac Ventures the rights to prospect there and should have
consulted with them first.

They say they're afraid a uranium mine could destroy the local water
table, and they won't budge until the provincial government talks to
them.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=e8836d7b-4f8e-48be-8fdd-e8a35b7bd83a&k=87205

First Nations protest over uranium mining continues
Andrew Thomson, CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, August 28, 2007

CLARENDON STATION, Ont. -- A group of First Nations reaffirmed their
vow to remain outside a controversial uranium site north of Sharbot
Lake Tuesday, with police keeping their distance one day after a
judge ordered an end to the two-month protest.

Justice Gordon Thomson of the Ontario Superior Court has instructed
members of the Ardoch and the Sharbot Obaadjiwan Algonquin First
Nations to leave immediately and allow Frontenac Ventures Corp.,
"unfettered and unobstructed access" to the land near Clarendon
Station, 125 kilometres west of Ottawa.

The injunction allows the Ontario Provincial Police to remove
protesters and break the blockade. But both sides played a waiting
game for much of Tuesday.

Two officers visited the site for nearly two hours to clarify the
injunction at a pipe ceremony and talking circle underneath an open
tent. Holding an eagle feather, they told the crowd the force had no
exact timeline for enforcing the order and needed more time to study
the injunction's language.

Once they left in the early afternoon, the nearest police presence
was a cruiser about 300 metres north of the blockade.

The relationship between protesters and police has been peaceful and
trustworthy, said Robert Lovelace, a former Ardoch Nation co-chief,
adding the OPP told him they would advise the group if or when their
instructions change.

"People are here to defend their land, not cause a disturbance,"
Lovelace said at the blockade. "We have no other place in the world
to look to our origins, our customs, our way of life."

Residents also worry about the environmental impact of proposed mines
on soil and the Mississippi River watershed.

Plans by Frontenac Ventures to drill the land for core samples ended
when a blockade was erected on June 28. The company has staked more
than 5,000 hectares nearby as part of its "Frontenac Project," and is
suing local First Nations for $77-million.

The Ardoch Algonquin repeated their calls for Premier Dalton McGuinty
to assign land claim negotiators to the region.

Their supporters outside the gate swelled to a few dozen Tuesday --
mostly supportive local residents wearing fluorescent green T-shirts
opposing the uranium venture.

Any protester inciting violence would be asked to leave the blockade,
said Mitchell Shewell, another Ardoch Algonquin.

Ottawa Citizen
--

Dawn Paley                              Communications & Outreach
Coordinator
MiningWatch Canada                              ofc.  (613) 569-3439
250 City Centre Ave., Suite 508                 fax:  (613) 569-5138
Ottawa, Ontario  K1R 6K7                        e-mail: dawn at miningwatch.ca
Canada                                          http://www.miningwatch.ca

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