It is worth noting that Canada’s largest union (CUPE National) and Canada’s largest private sector union (CAW) both signed onto the letter, along with enviro, faith based, youth, and other labor groups.

The signatories are:

Amnesty International
CAW
Christian Peacemaker Teams
CUPE National
CUPE Ontario
CUPW
KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives
Mining Watch Canada
Rainforest Action Network
Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy, Ryerson University
Sierra Youth Coalition
Toronto & York Region Labour Council

The list would have been longer if not for the rush to get the letter out in a timely way.

An even larger coalition supported Grassy Narrows, KI, and Ardoch this past May as they gathered for four days and nights of ceremonies and rallies at the Provincial legislature. The gathering was attended by 3,000 people at its peak, and generated a lot of pressure for some of the very changes that the premier promised to implement only one month later.

This is a rare chance to hear analysis of this important development directly from a community leader whose people will be directly affected by the new plans.

watch?v=j5sOxLOpLB4

Last year, Chief Morris and five of his councilors were sentenced to 6 months in jail for refusing to allow mining exploration to proceed on their territory without consent. An appeal court recently freed the KI6 and has recently released their reasons – a big step forward for the right to consent and also for the right to protest.

Ontario’s Premier committed to protect 50% of the province’s Northern Boreal Forest from all industry, and to allow new logging and mining only with the support of First Nations through a community landuse planning process that would require First Nations agreement.

Indian Country (The Nations’ Leading American Indian News Source) ran a long article today that began to put the announcement in context.

While the Government may cast their move as a benevolent attempt to ‘do the right thing’ they were really spurred to action by the highly effective and hard fought campaigns of Indigenous communities like Grassy Narrows, KI, Ardoch, and Six Nations. Those communities have not only been on the front lines of the blockades, they are also setting ground breaking legal precedents, and they are galvanizing a solidarity movement that has mobilized people and organizations across the spectrum from mainsteam to radical enviros, human rights, faith-based, labour, student unions, anti-poverty, and immigrant rights organizations.

It is primarily the work of these communities (and their supporters) that has created the political and economic necessity for this change. The work goes on as these communities continue the process of asserting their sovereignty, re-claiming their territories and livelihoods, healing their people, and caring for the earth. They are setting a bold example for the whole world to follow.

RAN, and our allies, have had the honor of working with some of these courageous communities over the last four years. Here are some of the pictures:

Sept. 21, ‘07 action with Grassy, KI, Ardoch, and CPT at the Ontario Legislature, shortly before the elections

June 25, ’07 action at Provincial Legislature with Grassy and KI , and CPT

July, ’06 Blockade of the English River Road with Grassy activists

April ’07 Seattle action at Weyerhaeuser subsidiary right before Weyerhaeuser AGM

March ’07 Seattle action

July 2006 TransCanada Highway blockade near Grassy Narrows

Nov. 2005 Boreal Day of Action – Toronto

May ’08 Gathering, Rally, and Sleepover at Provincial Legislature with Grassy and KI , Ardoch and a huge coalition of supporters

The government release states that “[p]lanning at the community level will be a true partnership. Because any decision on development has the greatest affect on communities, local planning will only be done in agreement with First Nations… To ensure proper planning and community input, new forestry and the opening of new mines in the
Far North would require community land use plans supported by local Aboriginal communities.”

If properly implemented, the commitment to require community “support” for new forestry and mines, and for local planning “done in agreement” with First Nations could be a big step forward in enforcing the right of Indigenous communities to free, prior, and informed consent over land-use decisions on their territories. This is a clear outcome of the power that First Nations communities like Grassy Narrows, KI, Ardoch, and Six Nations have built in Ontario.

It is still unclear how these commitments to First Nations controlled planning will be reconciled with the pre-determined goal of 50% protection, nor is it clear whether similar planning will be promised to First Nations in the rest of the province. It is also unclear what the fate of the remaining 50% of this ecologically intact region will be.

The planned protected area is as large as the entire US roadless areas network, 80 times the size of Yosemite National Park, and half the size of California.

Check back in soon for some analysis and for a RAN position on this development.

Sources:
Government of Ontario press release

Nishnaabe Aski Nation news release
Matawa First Nations respond to Ontario’s Far North Planning Initiative
Chiefs of Ontario statement
Union of Ontario Indians statement
KI Friends Blog
Indian Country: Ontario presents plan of permanent protection
Wawatay News: Early FN consultation part of Far North planning Initiative

Globe and Mail: Ontario vows to protect boreal forest
Toronto Star: Ontario to protect vast tract
Toronto Star: Ontario First Nations demand firm right to say ‘no’ to mining developments
Toronto Star: Premier gives ‘natures way’ a chance
Toronto Star: Proceed with caution on boreal promise
Toronto Sun: Vast forest protected – somewhere
Toronto Sun: Mine Deal Rocks North
Kenora Daily Miner: Province to work with First Nations on consultation process
Canadian Mining Journal: Half of Northern Ontario now off-limits to mineral industry
Canadian Mining Journal: More thoughts on protecting Ontario’s boreal forests

Map of NAN communities and lands

Sept. 21 action with Grassy, KI, Ardoch, and CPT

June 25, 07 action at Provincial Legislature with Grassy and KI , and CPT

CBC National primetime interview with Roberta Keesick

Article on AlterNet

Feature Article in Toronto’s Now Magazine

Article on rabble.ca

Environmental News Service newswire

The Toronto Star

JB Fobister is a Grassy Narrows member who has been a key part of the community’s work towards self-determination. He sends this message:

Six years ago when we blocked the main logging road near our small community people told us we were crazy to take on two of the largest logging companies in the world. We weren’t crazy, we were just fed up with watching our livelihood, our culture, our medicine, our children’s future – our forests – being carried off our land right before our eyes. We were tired after decades of letter writing, petitions, meetings, protests, speaking tours, legal challenges and rallies, but we refused to give up.

Last night, as I was standing in front of my house looking out at Grassy Lake, it occurred to me that the news I had received a day earlier was something huge. Only at that point did it finally sink in that we had forced AbitibiBowater – the world’s largest paper company – to withdraw from our lands.

I’m really thankful for everybody that made this happen. We couldn’t have done it without everybody’s help over all these years.

I met yesterday with Ministry of Natural Resources regional manager Al Wilcox. His tone was entirely different from past meetings. He said “things will be different from now on.” They sure will be. Grassy will not stop until we are in control of our lands and until our territories have been withdrawn from all clear-cut logging. Our moratorium on industry without our consent still stands, and we will enforce it.

I’m very happy today. People need to hear about what we have done. Then people need to stand up and do something for themselves and for the land too. If Grassy can do it, so can you .

JB Fobister

Last week, as hundreds of supporters gathered to demand their release, Bob Lovelace and the KI6 won a ground breaking legal appeal to secure their unconditional release. The community leaders had served 4 months of a 6 month jail sentence for saying ‘no’ to mining exploration on their traditional territories.

Please read below for some important words from Robert Shimek, Mining Projects Coordinator for the Indigenous Environmental Network, and from the recently freed Chief Donny Morris of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI).

All,

It is indeed encouraging that so much progress has been made in this
effort to free our brothers and our sisters, and our communities from
the burden of being imprisoned for standing up for what is right and
just. Congratulations to all for the great work and accomplishments of
this effort. While doing so, we all should recognize that we should not
become complacent in these victories as they are accomplished. It should
be remembered that the recent victory is a part of a much larger
resistance to colonialism by Indigenous Peoples that has been occurring
in North America for hundreds of years. It should be remembered that
much of this multi-generational struggle is based in the treaties signed
between nations, or in some cases, protecting a land base because of the
lack of treaties. It is the rights of the Tribes or First Nations to
protect our land, whether we are in the U.S. or Canada, that all
citizens should be paying attention to. It is those rights, whether they
be codified in treaty, or not, that may very well be the last single,
large environmental protection tool available to all of us, regardless
of who we are or where we live on the face of this Turtle Island.

For all freedom loving people, there is much to be celebrated in the
recent victories of the KI Six, the Ardoch Algonquins, and their
supporters. Let us be hopeful that this is the first in a long string of
celebrations that will ultimately lead to true freedom and justice for
all those who have engaged this effort. The words of non-native American
legal scholar Felix S. Cohen serves as just one of the many measures of
the work behind us, as well as the work before us. In 1953, Cohen
stated, “Like the miners canary, the Indian marks the shift from fresh
air to poison gas in our political atmosphere; and our treatment of
Indians, even more that out treatment of other minorities, reflects the
rise and fall of our democratic faith.” First Nations, tribes, and all
people seeking a fair measure of justice, just took a dunking in the
poison gas of the political atmosphere that governs who are the haves,
the have mores, and the have nots. With many thanks to all who helped,
supported, volunteered, sacrificed, walked, organized, and all the other
multitude of tasks that it took to achieve this victory, those of us who
could not participate owe an immeasurable amount of gratitude and
respect for all your great efforts. Today, we are all better off because
of your work, and the political atmosphere is air is a slightly less
toxic.

The challenge before us is now, how do we get to a point where our men
and women do not have to go to prison for protecting the land that has
been under their care taking for hundreds of generations. The extractive
resource corporations and the government regulatory agencies they
purchase have not yet changed their predatory practices. There is still
much to do.

Chi miigwech
Robert Shimek
Mining Projects Coordinator
Indigenous Environmental Network

Letter from KI Chief Donny Morris
(exerpt)

June 3, 2008

Message from Chief Donny Morris:

On behalf of the KI Six and our whole community, I want to thank
everyone who worked so hard to organize the events held at Queens Park
in Toronto May 26-29. I strongly believe that we owe our freedom
largely to those events and to the people who made the Rally and
Sovereignty Sleep-Over such a great success.

KI councilor Cecilia Begg, the only woman among the KI six, is now all alone in the Thunder Bay District jail, a notorious jail that has seen 3 aboriginal deaths in the last 4 years.

Please take action to support the KI six.

You can write letters to Cecilia at:

Thunder Bay Detention Centre
Highway 61 South
PO Box 1900
Thunder Bay ON
P7C 4Y4

The Globe and Mail (Canada)

March 20, 2008 Thursday

Are the KI Six outlaws or prisoners of conscience?

BYLINE: RACHEL ARISS, Legal specialist in the Department of Sociology
at Lakehead University

As of this week, Chief Donny Morris and five other band council members
of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation sit in jail. They were
sentenced on Monday to six months in prison by Mr. Justice Patrick
Smith of the Ontario Superior Court in Thunder Bay.

So what “crime” did they commit?

KI First Nation leaders signed Treaty 9 in 1929 to protect their
ability to feed themselves in their homeland (600 kilometres northwest
of Thunder Bay) by hunting, fishing and trapping, and to prevent the
encroachment of early miners and loggers. The native community saw the
treaty as a peaceful way to share the land with newcomers, while
remaining connected to the land’s sustenance and sacredness.

But in the winter of 2005-06, Platinex, a mining-exploration company,
tried to drill on land for which it had staked a claim pursuant to
Ontario’s mining laws but which land also is subject to Treaty 9. KI
First Nation members protested on the site, preventing the drilling
from proceeding. The company sued for damages and sought an injunction
to prevent further protests.

It was the KI First Nation, however, that received an interim
injunction based on the irreparable harm it would suffer if drilling
went ahead as Platinex had planned. The injunction was granted on
condition that the parties negotiate toward an agreement that would
allow Platinex to drill. Ontario joined as intervenor, talks between
the three parties followed, but no agreement could be reached.

The court lifted the injunction last May and imposed an agreement,
proposed by Platinex and Ontario. KI First Nation members were ordered
to allow Platinex onto their land to drill. When they did not do this,
they were found in contempt of court.

In other words, when the people of the KI First Nation asserted their
treaty rights – to secure sustenance from the land, to live on the land
in accordance with their spiritual beliefs, and to share the land, as
equals, with the newcomers – their leaders were jailed.

How did it come to this?

Three laws converge in this place.

The first, since time immemorial and the one that is sacred to the
people of KI, is to follow the duty given to them by the Creator to
protect the land for future generations. According to this law, the
people of KI did not have to follow the court order. In all conscience,
they could not allow Platinex to drill.

Exploratory drilling – and its accompanying noise, campsite, drill pad,
machinery, fuel drums, helicopters and trucks – poses an unacceptable
risk of damaging the Big Trout Lake area, a place of reliable hunting
and fishing sites, trap lines, regular berry harvesting and burials of
still-remembered family members.

The second law, Treaty 9, was a covenant made between equals to share
the land, allowing both peoples to live peacefully together. According
to this law (and the Supreme Court has affirmed that governments must
consult with and accommodate first nations before doing anything that
may infringe treaty rights), it is the Ontario government and Platinex
that have to do things differently. Jailing the KI leadership will not
lead Ontario to properly consult with and accommodate the community’s
concerns – it may do the opposite.

The third law is Ontario’s Mining Act, with its outdated free-entry
staking system. The contradiction between the Mining Act and KI’s
treaty rights is key to understanding why the native leaders are in
jail.

The act allows anyone to stake a claim anywhere on Crown land and, as
soon as it is filed with the government, it is valid. The act does not
mention that all Crown land in Ontario is governed by treaties with
first nations people. It doesn’t even include the minimal first step of
requiring companies or the ministry to communicate with first nations
about exploration. The system makes money for Ontario and, especially,
for mining companies.

Ontario has long resisted fulfilling its treaty promises, perhaps
hoping that impoverished remote communities will not fight for their
rights. Its pattern has been to resist until there is a crisis, until
the damage of broken trust with aboriginal peoples has been entrenched
- Ipperwash and Caledonia are the most recent and most publicized
evidence of this pattern.

Ontario has failed in its duty to consult, accommodate and, more
important, to reconcile with first nations communities across the
province. First nations people and their supporters are tired of this
deliberate failure.

Many aboriginal and non-aboriginal people in this province want to find
a way forward, out of the poverty, racism and despair facing many first
nations communities, toward living together peacefully and
respectfully.

Some of these folks were at the courthouse in Thunder Bay on Monday.
Others attended the courthouse in Kingston when Bob Lovelace, a member
of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, was sentenced in February to six
months in jail for opposing mining exploration on his community’s
traditional lands. We will not go away.

The KI Six have been in jail since Monday. They are in jail because
they believe they have a spiritual duty to protect the land for future
generations, and they believe that drilling the land is not protecting
it. They are in jail because they believe they have legally
recognizable treaty rights that remain meaningful as long as they can
maintain their homeland in its pristine state.

The KI Six are prisoners of conscience.

Clearly, the dispute between the KI First Nation and Platinex is a
crisis. But a Band-Aid solution from Ontario is not enough. It is time
for all of us, aboriginal and non-aboriginal, to stand up with the KI
community and demand justice, and to continue demanding justice until
we have true reconciliation between aboriginal and non-aboriginal
people in Ontario.

We will go there to feel a little bit of the suffering the land is feeling. We will go there to feel the life of our traditional laws which still roam strong amongst the animals, land, trees, water and spirits. Our laws still exist we just have to bring life to them by exerting them, by living them not just talking about them. They are being undermined by foreign laws and system of government and we are allowing this.

We will eventually head out soon. We will go there to pray for our relatives that are suffering, our kids that are being abused with alcohol and drugs, we will pray that our people remain strong and not fall prey to little deals, we will pray for strength, we will pray for unity, for health….

Those words were spoken by Chief Donny Morris in a Thunder Bay Ontario courtroom on
January 25th. With those words it became crystal clear that Chief Morris and his small
fly-in community can not, and will not back down in their stand to protect their
traditional territory from unwanted exploitation.

For two years the community has stood strong in the face of government and industry pressure, hardball negotiatons, and a 10 Billion dollar lawsuit. Now the community is preparing for the very real threat of jail time for community leaders who continue to deny access to the mining company Platinex that is trying to drill samples aimed at developing a mine near the Native Community. Community leaders say are confident that if they go to jail other leaders will stand up in their place and hundreds of others will be ready to step up to defend their rights, their sustenance, their spirituality, and the future of their children.

KI is one of at least 9 communities in Northern Ontario who have declared moratoriums on industry in their territories. Those communities are part of a federation whose combined territories in Ontario’s Boreal forest encompass an intact forest area larger than all US roadless areas combined.

This is a landscape of hope where there is a still a chance to do things right for the land and its peoples. Communities like KI are showing us the way by standing up for their rights, their land, and securing a hopeful future for all peoples by creating a powerful movement of self-determining, proud communities protecting the sources of life and livelihood that we all depend on.

I believe that our best shot at renewing our society through respect for humanity and ecology is by supporting communities like KI and organizing our own communities to stand up for earth and justice in our own backyards.

Today, Thursday the 14th, Free The Planet members directly confronted
OSU President Gordon Gee, not once, but twice. This morning I went to
see Kate Wolford, assistant to the President and Director of Operations
here at OSU. She is one of the university’s key negotiators at the
environmental task force (the group in charge of drafting our
sustainable forest policy). I wanted to give her some photos of
clear-cuts in the Boreal forest and another copy of our demands -
seeing as how “blind-sided” she said she felt by FTP members demands for
a full forest resources policy on Tuesday I thought she might like a
refresher before today’s task force meeting. Well, Kate wasn’t there,
apparently she was already off having pre-meetings with other task force
members – but that’s ok, cuz guess who WAS there, and with no Kate as a
body guard, President Gordon Gee!

President Gee was in the middle of an international meeting with a
German university president snapping pictures of handshakes and signing
documents with fancy ink pens. No sooner than Gee suggested “let’s
congratulate ourselves” did things start going downhill for his meeting.
I walked right in (after all the door was open) and placed our demands
and clear-cut pictures right on top of all those fancy pens of theirs
and asked that President Gee please stop destroying endangered forests.
Oh man, can his brows get furled!, (and our poor international guest, he
looked so totally confused). Needless to say, the laughing & snapshots
stopped and Gee kinda flipped. Attempting to remain calm, Gee excused
himself and started jabbing me in the chest with his finger as he said,
“there is a process, you can’t just interrupt my meetings, i’ll have you
arrested!” It was all pretty comical – his fingers are pretty damn bony
though, “ouch man!”. On my way out I chatted with one of the German
reps, apologized for having to interrupt their meeting and filled him in
about our 8hr sit-in on Tuesday and told him i would have much rather
spoke with President Gee then.

Not even 20 minutes later a second Gee Interception (man, Kate, you’re
really dropping the ball here) at the president’s office happened. A
second member of Free The Planet had come in wishing to had Kate copies
of our 2,600 or so petition signatures but walked right into good old
Gordon Gee instead. This FTPer got the same rap about “process” from
President Gee (minus the finger jabbing) but Gee’s not the only one
who’s masted the broken record messaging – our FTP activist retorted
with, “your process doesn’t work for us!” It’s clear FTPers know what we
want and we’re not dealing with process any longer!!!

I guess the moral of the story here President Gee is, “your process
doesn’t work for us!” GET OUT OF ENDANGERED FORESTS NOW!

For many years area was the site of a long, bitter and hard-fought campaign to save the remaining old-growth forests, protect Squamish sacred sites, and respect Squamish self-determination. Groups ranging from the Squamish Nation to the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, the Forest Action Network and the Elaho Anarchist Horde all contributed to the effort. When the Squamish Nation designated the most contested areas as Wild Spirit Places in their land-use plan, Interfor (the logging company) chose to leave them alone rather than risk even more fierce opposition. In 2005 the Squamish Nation bought the Tree Farm license from Interfor. Now the government of British Columbia is following the Squamish Nation in formally recognizing the protection of the upper Elaho and Simms Valleys.

Although not without faults, this is a great example of how strong, long term collaboration between First Nations, Environmental NGO’s, and grassroots activists can lead to paradigm shifting success on the ground.

Click here to read the Wilderness Committee press release