Police Disrupt Ceremony

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> Religion Clause
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> March 24, 2008 Monday 2:18 PM EST
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> First Nation Says Canadian Officials Violated Religious Rights By
> Dousing Fire
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> BYLINE: Howard Friedman
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> LENGTH: 163 words
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> Mar. 24, 2008 (Religion Clause delivered by Newstex) -- In Thunder
> Bay, Ontario last week, a judge sentenced the Chief and six Council
> members of one of Canada's First Nations, the Kitchenuhmaykoosib
> Inninuwug(KI), to six months in jail for contempt of court. The
> conviction grew out of their staging a demonstration to block a mining
> company from access to Big Trout Lake, access which had been granted
> to the company by a court order. (Anishinabek Nation press release,
> 3/17). Yesterday the situation escalated into a religious freedom
> dispute. The Exchange Morning Postreports that First Nation supporters
> of the arrested leaders showed up outside the Thunder Bay jail where
> they are held and lit a Sacred Fire in their support. The Police and
> Fire Marshall's office extinguished the fire. Now the KI are claiming
> that this was suppression of a First Nation traditional spiritual
> ceremony in violation of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
>