[IPSM] Grassy Narrows warns Weyerhaeuser, Abitibi against 'destruction of homeland’

[Macdonald Stainsby]

GRASSY NARROWS, Ont. (CP) - Frustrated by what they see as an industrial 
invasion of their territory, aboriginal people in northwestern Ontario 
are warning two forestry giants to stop logging the area or face an 
international protest.

In a letter sent to Weyerhaeuser Co. Ltd. and Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. 
on Tuesday, the Grassy Narrows First Nation accused the companies of 
cultural and environmental devastation.

"This letter is your final official notice that you are taking part in 
the destruction of our homeland," the letter states.

"Know that you face a fierce campaign against you on all fronts - in the 
woods, in the streets, in the marketplace, in your boardrooms and in the 
media."

The 700-member community of Grassy Narrows has long complained that 
decades of unsustainable logging have poisoned area waters with mercury 
and other toxins and all but destroyed their aboriginal way of life.

Negotiations, lawsuits, requests for environmental assessments, public 
protests and a three-year blockade in the forest have all failed to win 
an improvement in the situation, the letter states.

"The Earth is suffering and we as human beings are suffering," said Judy 
Da Silva, a member of the Grassy Narrows environmental committee.

"The water is really polluted, there's a lot of erosion on the land, and 
. . . we're still finding high levels of mercury in animals."

Bonny Skene, Ontario public affairs manager for Weyerhaeuser Canada, 
said Montreal-based Abitibi-Consolidated is responsible for managing the 
forest and does so according to plans sanctioned by the provincial 
government.

Weyerhaeuser, which uses hardwood from forests in the area to feed its 
mill in nearby Kenora, Ont., takes the concerns stated in the letter 
seriously, she said.

"Weyerhaeuser is committed to building mutually beneficial relationships 
with aboriginal communities," Skene said from the company's regional 
offices in Dryden, Ont.

"We understand the demands on forests today and meeting the demands 
requires all of us to work together."

David Sone, an organizer with the Rainforest Action Network based in San 
Francisco, said the forest companies have "run amok" in Grassy Narrows 
and need to be stopped.

"This letter signals the beginning of a serious escalation of the 
struggle to protect Grassy Narrows," Sone said.

"It makes very clear their wishes and interests aren't being respected 
and they don't intend to sit back and watch that happen."

Last fall, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society issued a report 
that denounced Abitibi for clear cutting huge tracts land in the region 
and replanting it with ecologically barren tree plantations.

"The clear cutting of the land and the destruction of the forest is an 
attack on our people," said Roberta Kessik, a Grassy Narrows grandmother 
and trapper.

"The land is the basis of who we are."

The First Nations also worry that irreversible damage will be done to 
eco-tourism in the area, further damaging the longer-term economic 
prospects in the region.
-- 
Macdonald Stainsby
http://independentmedia.ca/survivingcanada
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope
    --Bertholt Brecht.