Grassy Narrows Reserve in Ontario

[180IQ]

Last month, the government of Ontario, Canada, proposed plans to increase clear-cut logging in the traditional territory of the Grassy Narrows First Nation. This week, the community needs help to stop it.   

You can call Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and tell him to stop the planned increase in logging in Grassy Narrows' traditional territory. Without significant outside pressure, sources close to the negotiations expect the logging deal to close before the end of the year.

The planned logging increase shocked Grassy Narrows community leaders. Following logging blockades by the community earlier this year, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs David Ramsay said that he was "certainly committed to deal with the issues that Grassy Narrows is bringing up." Despite this commitment, provincial officials failed to consult the community regarding the logging increase.

While the province ignores Grassy Narrows' concerns, industrial loggers appear to be calling the shots. According to the government's own labor bulletin, logging companies proposing the deal "originally approached the Ministry in the fall of 2005.  With no apparent plans to consult the community regarding the expansion of logging within their traditional territory, the bulletin states that new mills are already planned to begin processing the increased volume. According to government documents, logging companies counting on the deal will "begin construction in the spring of 2007.

Please help save the Grassy Narrows' territory from being illegally logged again. Call Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to demand that he honor Aboriginal rights and stop clear-cut logging in Grassy Narrows. For more information visit http://www.freegrassy.org/

[piya]

Lets get behind this guys, not are they again encroaching illegally on traditional lands, but with all the talk recently about global warning and excessive CO2 ommisions, losing forrests who use up CO2 is a no no. Not only that but the logging mills, trucks and machinery will produce even more.

[Ric_Richardson]

Tansi;

I also live in an area of the Boreal forest, in Northwestern Saskatchewan, which is being clear cut.  In order to provide alternative economic initiatives, to help people to understand the value of these lands, we have been attempting to develop a Non Timber Forest Product industry, which will provide more direct impact economic benefits to those living in the forest, while sustainably harvesting products from the forest.

If we are not active in stopping the clear cuts, we will end up with more of a "plantation" style of forest and will lose some of the biodiversity that includes many of our Traditionally used plants and animals.

The destruction of our forests makes it easier for governments to decide that our people can be moved from their Traditional lands, into cities, leaving the resource rich lands, for industrial uses, benefitting the multinational companies.  Our lands and resources help to define us, as Aboriginal people!  This disrespect of our lands and Cultures only serves as a means of Cultural erosion.

Please support the struggles of those trying to stop the destruction!

Ric