A First Nation Indigenous community is determined to challenge permits for logging near their territory in the southwestern region of the Canadian province of Ontario.
The Grassy Narrows First Nation is concerned logging will affect their forests and worsen mercury poisoning issues residents have had to deal with for decades.
The Toronto Star newspaper reports the First Nation is challenging Ontario’s right to issue permits and it has sent a letter to the province’s premier, Kathleen Wynne. Wynne had previously been the province’s Aboriginal Affairs Minister. The Grassy Narrows logging issue is before the Supreme Court of Canada.
“They (the province) still believe they’re the kings of the forest,’’ the community’s Chief Simon Fobister said on Wednesday (October 30).
Last year a report concluded First Nations people from the community of Grassy Narrows continue to suffer the effects of mercury poisoning more than 40 years after commercial fishing was closed.
The mercury originated in the 1960s from a chemical and pulp mill in nearby town of Dryden, owned by Reed Paper Co. From there it got into the English-Wabigoon River System and then into the fish.
The first page on the Grassy Narrows website raises the following questions: “How do we make a living from the earth without destroying it? How do we maintain a culture in a swiftly shifting world? How do we continue our way of life when there are activities in our Traditional Land Use Area that threatens our Aboriginal and Treaty Rights?”
More information:
Toronto Star – Grassy Narrows First Nation’s anti-logging battle with province heats up – here
CBC News – Mercury poisoning effects continue at Grassy Narrows – here
Grassy Narrows website – www.grassynarrows.ca
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