CONTEMPT OF COURT
On March 16, a court in Thunder Bay found six members of the band -- including Chief Donny Morris, the deputy chief and several band councillors -- in contempt of court and ordered them to jail for six months.
That seems an astonishingly harsh judgment for a group that has been largely gentle in their claims. While the government doesn't direct the courts, this doesn't seem a very auspicious start to what the McGuinty government has said will be a "new relationship" with first nations.
KI is in New Democratic Leader Howard Hampton's Kenora-Rainy River riding. He's outraged by the jail sentence, slamming the McGuinty government for granting a mining permit without fulfilling constitutional requirements to consult with first nations.
"It's that failure to meet their constitutional obligation that has resulted in a confrontation between the first nation and the mining community and resulted eventually in the jailing of first nations leaders," Hampton said in a recent interview.
