The Dominion - Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation

The Land Provides What Mining Can't

dawn — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 08:14:21 +0000

KI leaders take their complaints to the United Nations

KITCHENUHMAYKOOSIB, ONTARIO–When Ontario imprisoned six of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation's leaders in March, Canada turned its back. In response, the Northwestern Ontarian First Nation, fighting to keep mining exploration off of their traditional land, is going over Canada’s head.

The community has made formal accusations of treaty violations and human rights charges against Canada for standing by while Ontario jailed Chief Donny Morris and his council for contempt when they stopped Platinex corporation workers at their airport. The case will be presented to the United Nations in February.

Morris doesn’t oppose development, but has strong objections to the Ministry of Natural Resources collecting specimens, and field helicopters buzzing above the countless lakes surrounding KI, in explicit contravention of the wishes of the community. He questions whether the industry has learned anything from his incarceration and the public outcry that allowed for his release.

“We didn’t go through this exercise, going to jail, for another company to test us again,” he said. “We’re not trying to block it, we’re trying to be a part of it. Give us that responsibility ourselves. We’ll work with any corporation, but let us make that choice. We don’t want bureaucrats in Toronto who have never been up here making decisions on our behalf.”

In the thick of the province’s consultations that promise to overhaul the 135-year-old Mining Act, which currently allows for open staking on Crown land, there has been no correspondence from Ontario. In fact, Morris asked to photocopy the 15-page First Nations consultation briefing released by the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines because he had never read it.

Minister Michael Gravelle would deny those claims in a later interview.

****

Morris is leaving town at six in the morning for three days at a hunting festival. The caribou are nearly gone, but the moose, deer, migratory birds, fish and other animals can still sustain a population where a can of soup costs $5 at the grocery store.

The water levels are rising, the weather is changing, and he has a difficult time explaining how he once saw seals on a paddle to Ontario’s shores of Hudson Bay.

Times are changing. When he became Chief, he never imagined how, in the middle of nowhere, he could be engaged in this kind of work. After two referenda opposed mining exploration, he had no choice but to go to jail.

“If it’s a different road they want, I’ll gladly take it, but I have to take the mandate of the community, eh?”

“When we were in jail, we went to the UN International Treaty Council,” he explains. “This is global now and that’s the route we decided to take. Not what you see across Canada, blockades and tires burning. That’s not the route to take in this day and age. It’s education.”

When Canada didn’t come to their aid in pressuring Ontario to release them, the KI-6 (the six jailed indigenous leaders) applied for funding to pay legal fees and were turned down. Defining Ontario as a successor state to Canada, Morris feels they were entitled to that defence by treaty right.

“I want to meet the Queen because we’re the Queen’s subjects. That’s the road I want to take. I want to tell the Queen that things aren’t going that well with what you promised us. We’re not doing that well with Ontario. Canada is sitting on the sidelines.”

Having gained international notoriety throughout the ordeal, Morris has been invited to Guatemala to share stories with indigenous peoples there and he hopes to address the United Nations when their concerns air this winter. These trips will depend on whether or he is able to obtain a passport, which has been declined twice.

Why Resist?

While the media roar surrounding KI has concentrated on the black and white questions of development – pro- and anti-mining, jobs and environment – the reasons for resistance have been silenced.

Samuel McKay is a band councilor and the spokesperson on the Platinex issue. McKay is one of a few who are reviving traditional spirituality and culture in the largely Christian community. His ideology on development reflects the balance needed to survive in this remote and ruthless climate. He wants development to be led by his people and the reason for this quickly becomes clear.

There is a barren flagpole overlooking a plaque in view of the lake where the 1929 treaty was signed. The treaty commissioner’s subsequent report read: “In view of the ...fact that the pushing back of the frontier is inevitable due to the spectacular interest and activity in the mining industry with its concomitant development, it was found necessary to extinguish the rights of those Indians resident north of the line AB.”

Walking out onto the peninsula, McKay slices the air with his forearms, revealing the checkerboard of ownership of their land, split before the treaty was signed between territory reclaimed from the church, plots owned by Bell Canada, Northern Stores, and regional carrier Bearskin Airlines. Some drums of waste are neatly gathered on the only private property around. Others are seemingly randomly placed throughout the tall grass leading into the woods and out into open water.

A creek runs to the lake from the former site of a float-plane refueling station where McKay worked as a teenager. He recalls fuel seeping into the ground and accuses the company of holding the lease on the land in order not to have to clean up the waste.

He says he has evidence that the Ministry of Natural Resources was dumping 45 gallon drums with PCBs and proof that it affected the community’s water supply. Environment Canada abandoned a weather station until they were pressured by the community to remove what they had left behind.

“We literally had to fight them to get them to clean up the land, and that’s Environment Canada!” he said. “That has been our experience with development. You wonder why this is the situation we’re in?”

The federal riding of Kenora, in which KI’s traditional territory falls, was identified in a 2006 federal report as having over 11,000 contaminated sites, the highest in the country. Morris’ own trap line crosses the Sherman Lake Mine site, a 400-foot-deep excavation abandoned without cleanup decades ago.

Their community members aren’t new to the mining life or to the boom and bust cycles of the economy it creates. Many of their families flew to Pickle Lake to work in the uranium-mining town that has been nearly abandoned after outliving the excavation. Many of those men continue to die from diseases commonly associated with mining.

When Platinex first came to the table, they were intent on having an open pit mine. To do so, they would have to drain two lakes that claw against these shores. As the community still relies on sustenance fishing, the payoff would have to be substantial to offset the damage to the community's ability to subsist.

He compares their situation with the Saugeen First Nation, who sold part of their land to a pulp and paper company 90 years ago. Today, their water is contaminated, there is no wild game, and no forest. The only way their people can survive, he explains, is through education and employment. Despite the dizzying scenes of past industrial ventures, whose removal costs would be substantial judging by the cost of flying a can of soup into KI, he insists that they are still in a position where their survival is best served by the land.

“We’re making the stand because we still have the water, the forest, the land, the fish and the animals. There are people in this community who live off of the land year around. Right now, we value this more than the minerals under the ground. We know that the mining industry is a boom and bust industry. It’s good for 30 years at the most... we want to use this for as long as possible.”

In the midst of KI’s struggle, AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine signed a Memorandum of Understanding that all First Nations were ready to go into business with industry. For McKay, it justified what he sees as trespassing without consent on their traditional land and undercut their right to self-determination. For now, the untouched wilderness surrounding the region’s ten partnered communities bears the fruit of their survival, and the negotiations with Platinex are off.

There are plans for development in KI, but the leadership insists that it be their priorities on their terms. In the next 20 years, they’re looking to eliminate the fuel generating station that powers their community in favour of hydroelectric generation. Ready to partner with any industry under conditions that achieve balance, the potential benefits must outweigh the costs.

“Really, we should thank Platinex for bringing this to the forefront,” McKay laughs. “It was going to have to happen eventually.”

Jon Thompson is a journalist, author, and media activist in Northwestern Ontario.

KI Solidarity March

Five of the KI6

Canada's Newest Political Prisoners

dawn — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:03:53 +0000

Indigenous leaders jailed for protesting mining exploration on their lands

TORONTO, ONTARIO–On March 18, 2008, Ontario Superior Court Judge Patrick Smith sentenced Chief Donny Morris and six other council members from the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation, a community of about 1,200 people in northern Ontario, to six months in jail for "contempt of court."

The group had defied a court order to stay away from a part of their land slated for mining by the Platinex Corporation. The judge applied the jail term rather than the fine as he knew the First Nation had gone bankrupt: the community had been fighting Platinex in court for several years after the company sued for $10 billion (later reduced to $10 million) for opposing drilling on KI territory.

Those charged served over two months in prison, eventually having their sentences reduced to time served. By the time they were released, they had exposed Ontario's Mining Act and the displacement of Indigenous Peoples for profit as a simmering issue throughout the country, awaiting its next crisis.

Legal trickery

Ontario's Mining Act is 135 years old and based on a "wild-west" model. It allows anyone to stake a claim anywhere on Crown land. This means that private companies can exploit public land for profit.

The legal question is whether the Mining Act supersedes all other laws and agreements.

In 2005 and 2006 Platinex attempted to explore and exploit land that, according to "Treaty 9," signed in 1929, belongs to KI First Nation. KI says the Mining Act is unconstitutional, bypassing the 'duty to consult,' and that mining on their land would threaten the First Nation's survival by destroying hunting and fishing habitats.

An attempt by Platinex to enter KI territory for drilling was denied by leaders in the community. The court claimed that if these leaders were not jailed, there would be a loss of respect for the law; the creation of two regimes of justice.

The KI have argued there are already two regimes of justice. "The government accuses First Nations of breaking Canadian laws when they defend their lands, but Canada itself is selective about which of its own laws it will abide by," said the Shabot Obaajiwan's spokesperson Earl Badour in a press release on March 18, 2008. "If the law doesn't serve their purposes, they conveniently ignore it."

In his sentencing of KI First Nation leaders, Judge Smith cited as precedent the jailing of Ardoch Algonquin Nation leader Bob Lovelace, who was sentenced on February 15 to six months in jail for trying to stop Frontenac Ventures from mining uranium on Ardoch Algonquin land, about 60km north of Kingston, Ontario.

Frontenac obtained a court order and an injunction rather than filing trespassing charges against Lovelace and other Indigenous protesters. Trespassing charges would have brought into question whose land was being trespassed upon: a can of worms the mining company wanted to avoid.

The Ardoch Algonquin First Nation and neighbouring Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation are also pointing to the disregard of the 'duty to consult' - something the Ontario government is legally bound to do, according to previous Supreme Court rulings and the Canadian constitution. The duty to consult means that Indigenous communities must be meaningfully consulted on resource exploration on their lands, a requirement that clashes with Ontario's Mining Act.

Mining Politics

The mining company Frontenac Ventures is shrouded in mystery. Mining researcher Jamie Kneen told IPS's Chris Arsenault, "Aside from the President and their lawyer, no one knows who they are or where they get their money." Frontenac's President, George White, refused to answer media calls.

The lawyer for Frontenac, Neil Smitheman, is also representing Platinex. The two companies have a lot of the same concerns. Indeed, when the provincial court ruled in 2006 that Platinex was to cease operations while consultations were held with KI, Smitheman said: "There are numerous mining companies and exploration companies that could be in a similar situation if there's a failure to have proper consultation on lands that could be subject to a claim by First Nations people." Apparently the court came to the same conclusion, deciding in 2007 that Platinex could in fact drill on KI's territories – that the Ontario Mining Act overruled the constitutional duty to consult.

For a sense of what KI territory might face if uranium mining does take place, there is precedent. The Elliot Lake uranium mine, also in northern Ontario, left 130 million tons of toxic tailings and destroyed the Serpent Lake ecosystem.

"Uranium mining has no record other than environmental destruction and negative health issues," says Doreen Davis, another Algonquin leader who was also sentenced to jail time.

While the environmental and social costs of mining uranium in Canada's north may be huge, the effect, even if the mine does not go through, is chilling.

"As even the mine promoter's lawyer has admitted in court hearings, there is a vanishingly small chance a uranium mine will ever get built at the headwaters of the Mississippi River northwest of Sharbot Lake," notes
Paul McKay, a friend and neighbour of Lovelace's, in an op-ed in the Kingston Whig-Standard. "Compared to other deposits in Saskatchewan, Australia, South Africa and Asia, the ore is laughably low-grade, and the cost to mine fatally high."

So why is the Ontario government allowing Platinex to push ahead, and jailing those who oppose the mine?

The point of these jailings, McKay argues, is a two-fold political message. One, to the mining companies: the mineral wealth of the north is open to access and the government will clear any Indigenous resistance out of the way. Two, to the Indigenous: any resistance against the latest bonanza of extraction and destruction will be met with criminalization and jail time.

Government games and the Indigenous response

A March 20 press release from First Nations of Sachigo Lake, Bearskin Lake, Muskrat Dam, Kasabonika, Wunnimun, Wapekeka, Kingfisher and Wawakapewin called for sustained opposition to the court's decision to jail KI protesters, and the mining companies' stance.

The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs suggested the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) tear up its Memorandum of Understanding with the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, signed on March 4, 2008.

From their press release of March 18, 2008: "The community members have been jailed for protecting their title and rights to their territories and any continued relationship with the mining industry will be indelibly stained by these shocking events...Given the ugly, thuggish approach demonstrated thus far by the courts and by the mining industry, it is of the utmost importance to show our support of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation and refuse to have any relationship with the mining industry."

The Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) suspended mining-related negotiations with the Ontario government the day after the KI leaders were sentenced. "It was a real insult to all First Nations," Alvin Fiddler, Deputy Grand Chief of NAN, told reporters on March 19.

AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine visited some of the jailed leaders in Thunder Bay on March 22 and called the jailing an obstacle to peace. Canada's Anglican Primate, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, wrote a letter on March 25 to Ontario's Premier, saying the jailing arises "out of the continual imposition of the power and values of colonizers."

The Grand Chief of NAN, Stan Beardy, was quoted in the Kingston Whig-Standard, arguing that other political considerations were at work. "The McGuinty government got labelled weak in dealing with Caledonia [Six Nations blockade in Ontario] and now they say, 'We're not weak and we'll show you by throwing these Indians in jail...'"

The federal government has been silent on the issue, sending a message that Indigenous issues are not national issues, but for provincial governments to deal with. The Ontario government is using familiar tactics.

While the Superior Court imposes jail sentences, the provincial government's Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Michael Bryant, offers a ‘compromise': the leaders don't go to jail, pay only some of the fines, and allow the mining to continue. In other words, surrender the land.

"What is happening here is we've been criminalized for practising our way of living," says Beardy. "The government wants to make an example of us. What's being done is, once more, we're being moved out of the way, our valuable resources are being exploited and everybody is benefiting except us."

A version of this article previously appeared in Znet.

Justin Podur is a Toronto-based writer and activist, who blogs at killingtrain.

KI Protest

Criminalizing Indigenous Rights in Canada

david parker — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:47:53 +0000

Criminalizing Indigenous Rights in Canada
David Parker
September 8th, 2008.

HALIFAX - In September of 2007, the United Nations adopted the non-binding Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Four high profile countries notably voted against the declaration - namely Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.[1] All four countries are states that were established by white settlers on indigenous lands, and all four are currently in disputes with indigenous peoples over land and sovereignty.

The Canadian state, built on the theft and occupation of indigenous lands, continues to benefit from its unjustly acquired assets. Equipped with an ultra-security state apparatus, Canada's repressive and suppressive anti-terrorist and security measures have historically struck hardest against those that have the most to gain, namely aboriginal nations and their legitimate claims for their rights to land and dignity.

Recent cases of indigenous protest in Ontario have been in opposition to government authorized resource extraction on native lands. Despite legitimate demands for sovereignty and decision-making power over their traditional lands, native protesters have been incarcerated: Robert Lovelace and the KI-6 (6 council members of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation) have received harsh fines and 6 months in jail for peacefully protesting against mineral exploration on the lands of KI and Ardoch Algonquin First Nation (AAFN).

Consultation Not Consent

hillarybain — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:44:16 +0000

The first interview with KI political prisoner Cecilia Begg

Cecilia Begg is the Head Councillor of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation. She is the lone female in what has come to be known as the KI6, a group of six KI community leaders who blockaded a mining company from its licensed operations on their traditional territory in Northwestern Ontario. In March, the community leaders were sentenced to six months for contempt of court.

On April 2, journalist Jon Thompson spoke with Begg at the prison in Kenora, Ontario. During her first interview since her incarceration, Begg spoke about the road that led her arrest, the reasons she is fighting the development, and the path that she hopes will emerge from her imprisonment.

Jon Thompson: The land entitlement claim that KI filed back in 2000 had been licensed to junior mining company Platinex. Did that claim have anything to do with the fact that the government licensed a mining operation on the traditional territory of your people?

Cecilia Begg: We're still trying to get the Treaty Land Entitlement (TLE). That was one of the things we asked for. A solution has to accommodate [the government] revoking the license to Platinex.

How do you feel it would affect your community if the Platinex mine were to go ahead?

From the way things are, it would be a drastic change for our community. It would endanger the animals, our tradition and the culture of our people.

On September 24th, 2007, Platinex company employees were met at the KI airport by members of the community. They then charged you and the others with contempt, which you did not defend in court. What really happened that day?

They [Platinex Employees] came into town and they were going to set up an office in the community and then fly into the site. They were there to do what they called archeological studies. We had been saying no all along and they came anyway.

They were met outside the plane and told they weren't welcome in the community; that we were adamant about fighting for our land. They finally left later in the day. I left that morning for a meeting down south but I was in the party that blockaded their entry to our land.

You're a mother, a grandmother, and a great grandmother. A lot of the mobilization around your political struggle has related to your being a woman. Can you explain the connection?

Three years ago, I decided that if it came to doing a jail sentence to defend our land, I would. I could have got out of it. When we were first sentenced, I met with [Nishinawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief] Stan Beardy and [Assembly of First Nations National Chief] Phil Fontaine. They were concerned that I was the only female serving a jail term and that maybe their lawyers could work towards an appeal process. But since I'm the only female, I felt the importance to go through with it and I wanted to stand by my original decision until such time as we get a positive answer to what we're asking for.

In our culture, it's important to show respect to the females. They are the ones who are mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, elders. You go on with things in that process. We're doing this on behalf of the ladies back home. They play an important role.

The women of Nishinawbe Aski Nation's Women's Council are fasting today to raise attention to your story. They're saying that in jailing you and the other imprisoned leaders, the Ontario government is creating heroes. How do you feel about that?

I don't know. My being in jail fighting for what I believe is ours…our rights, our land, for future generations. It's not about me, it's about the people back home. I appreciate their support…and the support from all over.

I want people back home to know that I'm doing alright. I have the support and prayers of many. In our culture it's encouraged to put the creator ahead of everything. That's what I believe in.

Did you see the demonstration marching by the jail last Saturday for you?

The glass is real thick upstairs so we couldn't get a clear view but we could hear the drumming and we could see the colours and that there were many people. That meant a lot to me, especially seeing so many people from back home who were able to join the rally.

One of the concerns from John Cutfeet [who negotiated on behalf of KI] was that the 2006 court ruling required the government to consult First Nations before companies could begin operations. In his words to me last summer, "First Nations gained the right to sit at the table, but they don't have the right to leave the table." To him, that wasn't legitimate consultation. What needs to be included in the consultation process that is not included now?

To go back to square one and ensure the proper steps are taken this time. There has to be changes. We have to be properly notified if there are even surveys going on. That has to happen before anything happens. The camps up North, there are signs of the land being staked. Land is being surveyed over the summer and winter with no consultation. Our treaty rights have to be respected.

In an interview with Aboriginal People's Television News, new provincial Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant said the government is working to overturn the decision that put you in prison, and that the crown had never asked for imprisonment. What does that support mean to you and what do you think is going to happen?

I'm not sure. I've been talking with people from back home and what the minister is passing on is not entirely true. They say he lied about the number of times he has been there. Once, he made a press release prior to coming to our community saying that we're coming to some sort of an agreement. We hadn't reached any sort of agreement with him. That didn't sit well with us.

What do you think is going to happen at the end of your sentence?

I'm just taking it a day at a time, trying to get as much information as I can from back home. It's a long process, trying to get information. I haven't been able to speak with the other men [imprisoned in Thunder Bay] until today. We're encouraging each other by knowing we're doing fine. That's all we can do.

Is there any chance that there could be any sort of agreement with the company?

At the moment, the answer is still no. We haven't changed. It will be up to the future generations and future leaders to allow or not allow development. We're not for or against development but there's too much at stake and we have to get our community ready for that. It will be up to the future generation and we can't foresee what they will need. We're keeping the land for them.

Five of the KI6

What's Mine Is Theirs

Sun, 03 Sep 2006 23:33:41 +0000

Legal Victory for Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation

The blockade against Platinex began in February. photo: Kingfisher Lake First Nation

On July 28, Justice G. P. Smith of the Ontario Superior Court presided over the decision hailed as one of the most important victories for Original Peoples in the Ontario justice system. The decision requires the publicly traded Ontario mining exploration company Platinex Incorporated to cease drilling operations in the territory claimed by Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (Big Trout Lake) First Nation (KIFN) in northwestern Ontario. The ruling obviates the $10-billion damage suit Platinex filed against KIFN for opposing drilling on territory that KIFN claims.

The decision could be a bellwether for First Nation rights and may have major ramifications in the manner in which mining and exploratory operations are carried out in Ontario.

"Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug are excited and pleased that we have been heard," says KIFN Councillor John Cutfeet. Cutfeet believes the ruling is good news for the approximately 1,000 people in KIFN.

"This land was given to us by the Creator; it is our past, present and future. Now the Ontario Superior Court has indicated it understood our spiritual, physical, emotional and mental dependence on the land when Justice Smith said, 'The land is the very essence of their being. It is their very heart and soul.'"

"The land not only provides for us, it nurtures us; it is our teacher," continues Cutfeet. "However that gift does not come without obligation; it is our job to stand together to protect the Creator's gift so that the land will continue to be there for all of us. That is what we have done for generations, what we did in signing the Treaty, and what is required of us if we are to live in balance and harmony."

In his statement, Justice Smith concurred:

It is critical to consider the nature of the potential loss from an Aboriginal perspective. From that perspective, the relationship that aboriginal peoples have with the land cannot be understated. The land is the very essence of their being. It is their very heart and soul. No amount of money can compensate for its loss. Aboriginal identity, spirituality, laws, traditions, culture, and rights are connected to and arise from this relationship to the land. This is a perspective that is foreign to and often difficult to understand from a non-Aboriginal viewpoint.

Smith found that there had been inadequate consultation by Platinex with KIFN. For KIFN, consultation is a community process.

Justice Smith faulted Platinex for gambling that KIFN would do nothing to oppose the company's drilling. For this reason, Smith concluded that Platinex, saddled with a challenging debt burden, is largely to blame for its predicament.

KIFN holds that exploiting the land for resources without planning for the future is irresponsible. "We must look at the bigger picture and look to what this land offers," says chief Donny Morris. "Our resources have been taken from us and we have not benefitted from what has been extracted from our lands to be sold to the rest of the world. Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug signed a Treaty and that Treaty must be honoured by the Crown. In sharing our land, our views and rights must not only be heard, but be understood so that the land is available to help us, not just those who grow rich at our expense."

"This decision is a huge victory for the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug and for the rights of Aboriginal communities throughout the province," says Sierra Legal lawyer Justin Duncan.

As laid out under previous Supreme Court decisions, among them Delgamuukw v. British Columbia and Mikisew Cree First Nation v. Canada (Minister of Canadian Heritage), governments must consult with Original Peoples before moving onto and extracting resources from territory claimed by an Indigenous community.

"The Court has clearly stated that companies like Platinex must respect community interests and cannot steamroll over the rights of Ontario's Aboriginal communities," says Duncan.

Justice Smith noted the absence of the Ontario government, not only during the court proceedings, but also from much of the consultation process with KIFN. Smith stated that the Ontario government has a fiduciary responsibility to KIFN that is not to be delegated to third parties. The Ontario government, nevertheless, determined that Platinex's exploratory activities near KIFN would have inconsequential environmental impact.

The Ontario minister of Northern Development and Mines, Rick Bartolucci, says the judicial decision is still being reviewed. Bartolucci stresses, however, that this particular decision "does not impact the legitimacy of other mining claims in Ontario."

Critics question the legitimacy of this statement, considering that Justice Smith pointed out that the Ontario government has failed to abide by its own laws. "Despite repeated judicial messages delivered over the course of 16 years, the record available in this case sadly reveals the provincial Crown has not heard or comprehended this message and has failed in fulfilling its obligation."

Meanwhile, negotiations are expected to resume between KIFN and Platinex. Both parties are scheduled to meet with Justice Smith in five months to report on their consultations.

After months of resistence, the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation have been awarded a legal victory in Ontario.

Corporate SLAPP

Thu, 22 Jun 2006 16:30:53 +0000

Citizens Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation walk to Queen's Park in the face of a corporate SLAPP suit

Platinex hired a foreign mercenary to provide security for the company after protesters and blockades disrupted thier operations. photo: Big Trout Lake First Nation

The Ontario-based mineral company Platinex has slapped the Ojibwa of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (Big Trout Lake) First Nation (KIFN) with a $10-billion damage suit for refusing the company permission to drill on territory the KIFN says is its own. KIFN argues that it has never signed away ownership of the land and is pursuing a land-claim settlement. Situated in northwestern Ontario, KIFN is about 580 km north of Thunder Bay. In 1998, Platinex Inc. secured exploratory rights from the Ontario government for 3,580 hectares of land in the area. In November 2005, KIFN called for a moratorium on mining and forestry on its lands. Platinex ignored requests that it vacate KIFN's territory.

In February, Platinex workers were confronted by KIFN protesters and, later that month, blockades of access roads and landing strips temporarily halted exploration.

In a letter to the Globe and Mail onFebruary 22 Platinex defended its exploration claiming it has "huge value for the world's environment" due to applications in pollution-regulating equipment.

Following the setting up of blockades, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) increased its presence in the community with seven additional officers. Platinex later raised a few eyebrows when the company hired a foreign mercenary to provide security for the company. According to Platinex lawyer Neil Smitheman, Paul Gladstone, an ex-British soldier, was hired to "assess and manage a potentially … volatile situation." KIFN spokesperson John Cutfeet asks, "When will the lessons of Ipperwash* be learned?"

In May, Platinex began drilling for platinum-group-elements as part of its exploration of the region. According to a Globe and Mail article, the deposit may be the largest on Turtle Island (Turtle Island is a First Nations' term for North America).

On May 1, Platinex sought legal approval to begin drilling. KIFN filed an injunction for relief on the land in question. Platinex then filed a $10-billion counterclaim against KIFN, Chief Donny Morris, the First Nation council, and others.

KIFN insists that it should have been consulted before drilling began. Platinex has countered with accusations that Chief Morris and the First Nation council have refused to "continue consultation in good faith" and has carried on with exploration unilaterally.

Ontario Natural Resources Minister David Ramsay supports the company and says drilling should continue while the matter is being settled. Critics say Ramsay's stance is foreclosing on the outcome of any settlement: the "right" of the mining and exploration companies trumps the right of the Original Peoples to their traditional homeland.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is also being criticized for breaking his word to Original Peoples. In a letter written on March 19, 2003, McGuinty promised to ensure environmental responsibility and "full participation by native communities" concerning land-use planning "to provide [for] a sustainable future."

Chief Morris says the territory is the birthright of the KI community, and it demands to be involved in sharing in the bounty of its land.

KIFN's struggle has mobilized the 49 First Nation communities of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN). In February, NAN grand chief Stan Beardy expressed solidarity with the KIFN and disappointment with provincial authorities' disregard for Aboriginal and Treaty rights within NAN territory.

"We had high expectations after the November 2005 Mikisew Supreme Court decision regarding Crown duty to consult and accommodate with First Nations when activities like mining threaten our Aboriginal and Treaty rights," says Beardy. "The fact Ontario has not implemented this decision in our province sets the tone for First Nation and government relations for resource development in NAN territory."

"Fifteen years of Supreme Court decisions have yet to be reflected in provincial and federal policies," says Cutfeet. "Our treaty partners continue to disregard direction from the Supreme Court in dealing with our people."

According to elder Allan Beardy, of the nearby Muskrat Dam First Nation, about 20 years ago slipshod mining exploration left the area blighted, ruining the hunting and fishing. The KIFN is determined to preserve the integrity of the sensitive muskeg environment from which some of its 1200 members still draw sustenance.

"We are not rich, nor do we have many possessions. We live a simple life, but we have a good life," says elder Eleazor Anderson who still hunts, traps, and lives off the land.

On May 9, four citizens from KI -- Mark T. Anderson, Darryl Sainnawap, Wallace Mosquito and Dylan Morris -- began walking from Pickle Lake to Queen's Park to raise awareness of the provincial government's disregard for Original Peoples and the environment.

Walking between 50 and 70 km per day, the group anticipates reaching Toronto by 21 June -- National Aboriginal Day -- to bring its message to the Ontario parliament.

Lead walker Anderson said, "We want our children and grandchildren to continue to use the lands and resources to pursue their usual vocations of hunting, trapping and fishing."

* Ipperwash was an Ontario standoff where Dudley George of the Aazhoodena First Nation - who was unarmed - was shot at 3 times and killed by Acting OPP Sgt. Kenneth Deane.

The Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation has been hit with a $10 billion damage suit for refusing drilling rights on territory they say is their own.