[IPSM] {Kenora Miner & News} Abitibi on Trial

[Stefan Christoff]

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Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 13:11:11 -0000
From: JB <jbfobister at yahoo.ca>


First week of Abitibi trial ends
First witness still on the stand

By Dan Gauthier
Miner and News


The first week of the trial between Abitibi-Consolidated and the Ministry
of Natural Resources ended Friday much like it began, with the first
witness still on the stand.

Following a day-long delay to deal with disclosure issues on the opening
day of the trial Sept. 20, MNR provincial prosecutor Scott Fenton called
the Crown's first witness, David Anderson, on Tuesday afternoon. The court
heard that it was Anderson, a Kenora-area forester for the MNR, who
submitted an investigation report on one of the cutting blocks in question
that he deemed was non-compliant under the terms of Abitibi's sustainable
forestry licence in the Whiskey Jack Forest.

Abitibi lawyer Jamie Kagan continued his cross examination of Anderson on
Friday afternoon in Kenora's provincial offences court before the trial
was adjourned until the next date in October. There are two more weeks
scheduled for the trial, Oct. 18-22 and Nov. 15-19.

Defence counsel for Abitibi pled not guilty to 20 charges of failing to
comply with a forest resource licence contrary to the Crown Forest
Sustainability Act. These charges are related to incidents that occurred
between May 1999 and April 2001 in Abitibi cutting blocks within the
Whiskey Jack Forest. They also pled not guilty to two related charges of
failing to provide information in March 2002.

In Kagan's cross examination, he questioned Anderson's credibility as a
qualified inspector as well as the validity of his non-compliance
investigation report which was filed July 31, 2001.

Anderson testified earlier that he was on an Abitibi-sponsored tour of
cutting blocks in the Whiskey Jack Forest with several MNR and Abitibi
officials as well as representatives of a local citizen's committee.
During this tour he said he "observed an absence of snags," or trees left
behind for pine marten habitat, as is specified in Abitibi's licence.
Kagan suggested to Anderson that there were no fully-trained forestry
compliance inspectors in place for the MNR in the Kenora area between 1999
and 2001, including Anderson himself.

In his reply, Anderson said that the training program was not in place in
the years specified by Kagan and no training for inspectors began until
June 2001.

As a result, Kagan suggested to the witness there was a "fundamental
failing in the compliance process" between the MNR and Abitibi in how they
were interpreting the details surrounding compliance issues on the cutting
blocks.

Kagan questioned Anderson's reluctance to inform Abitibi officials --
while on their company-sponsored tour of Whiskey Jack cutting blocks -- of
his observations of non-compliance. Kagan said if there was significant
evidence of non-compliance, it should have been reported to the company
within 24 hours, if not immediately.

"It didn't appear that Abitibi was attempting to hide anything," Kagan
said of the tour which included Abitibi's operational supervisor for the
region as well an official responsible for drafting the terms of the
forest management plan for the Whiskey Jack Forest - a document Anderson
also helped plan.

"I did not think it was appropriate at that time," Anderson replied. In
Fenton's opening comments on Tuesday, he told the court Abitibi is
required to abide by its forest sustainability licence as it is outlined
in their forest management plan.

He said, under the terms of their licence, Abitibi was bound by guidelines
in place to protect the habitat of pine martens in the Whiskey Jack Forest
by limiting the amount trees they were to cut, and they failed to comply
with these guidelines.

"Abitibi was required to leave six trees per hectare, not less, in each
cutting block and they did not," said Fenton.

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