[IPSM] sos-levasseur calling a meeting

[kforti9 at po-box.mcgill.ca]

The Quebec forests are in the hands of a few companies, that do not respect the
rights of the first nations, and the rights of the forests and all its species!
remember l'erreur boréale, don't let it happen again...


Since February 2005, the Innu community from Bethsiamite have taken a
Montreal-based paper company, Kruger inc., to court. The issue is the
exploitation of a 15 000 km territory, on which the Innus have ancestral rights
and for which they have not been consulted. Furthermore, a large part of the
terrritory was intended to become a natural reservation, until economical
development took over. No environmental impact assessment has been made on the
forest itself, and the territory may include old growth forests as well as
threatened species and large mammals with endangered habitats. Until now, the
focus of the debate has been on a supposed opposition between the forestry
workers and the Innus, but we and the Innus believe that an ecological approach
to forestry can benefit the Innus and the forestry workers, the forest itself
and Quebec as a whole.

The trials will start on May 16th, and the decision will be taken in September,
on the complete protection of the island. Until then, the cuts will continue on
the CAAF, but the Innus have asked for a complete ban on exploitation until the
final decision is made. That would allow us to gather more information on the
ecosystems, and would make the summer less critical for the area, on which the
cuts have been ongoing since 2003.

SOS-Levasseur are organizing a march on May 16th, 2005 to support the Innus of
Bethisamite, and we will work with their lawyers to advise us of which type of
actions are most appropriate.

Come to the Café Utopik, at 5:30, on Thursday, april 28th, 2005!

Café Utopik is in Montréal, on Sainte-Catherine Street. Take the Berri-UQAM
métro, exit Sainte-Catherine, cross Sainte-Catherine and turn left on it. The
door is right next to the Presse Internationale door, before the bakery.

more information: http://www.Soslevasseur.org