Barriere Lake Stands Against Resolute

Tim McSorley — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 08:51:38 +0000

Algonquin community vows to block corporate logging on their territory

MONTREAL & RAPID LAKE—For two weeks now, members of the Algonquin community of Barriere Lake have been standing fast in their opposition to clearcut logging on their territory.

On July 2, 2012, residents of Barriere Lake, located four hours north of Montreal, noticed loggers from Resolute Forest Products (formerly known as Abitibi Bowater Inc.) on their territory. The presence of the loggers came as a shock, since no consultation process had been carried out with the community members who harvest from that land.

These logging operations are also surprising due to an ongoing moratorium on corporate-based logging of the Algonquin land. Since 1991, Algonquins of Barriere Lake (ABL) have been fighting for the provincial and federal governments to respect an agreement they signed that allows for co-management of the land and guarantees the community a say in the exploitation of resources on their land.

ABL members moved quickly to stop the logging.

Tim McSorley is an editor with The Dominion and a member of the Montreal Media Co-op (CMM). David Koch, a Montreal community radio journalist, and Neal Rockwell, a Montreal photographer and film-maker and CMM member, conducted the interviews included in this piece. Pei-Ju Wang, who provided the photos, is a photographer and member of IPSMO.

ABL camp

Resolute clearcutting in Barriere Lake

Confronting loggers

SQ presence to protect Resolute loggers

Quebec government not respecting ABL agreement

ABL show importance of this land

ABL camp continuing

ABL solidarity

The Dominion - Pei Ju-Wang

Barriere Lake Stands Against Resolute