Mining Act
10 hours ago
TORONTO — The chief of a northern Ontario aboriginal community who was
incarcerated along with five other leaders in a dispute with a mining
exploration company said he's prepared to return to jail if the
province doesn't come to the table and review the Mining Act.
Happy to be home on Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation land
after winning a temporary release from jail Friday, Chief Donny Morris
told The Canadian Press he'll have no choice but to continue protesting
if the province allows Platinex Inc., to drill on his community's
traditional territory, about 600 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, Ont.
"I have to uphold the community membership's mandate and at the moment
they don't want any drilling or development of that sort," he said.
"We're willing to take that risk. When you're backed up into a corner
with your last hope trying to preserve your territory, you don't have
much of a choice."
Disobeying an injunction that prohibited him from interfering with the
company's work is what landed Morris and his colleagues in jail in the
first place. They were granted the temporary reprieve after they agreed
to abide by the injunction - a decision made only after Platinex
promised not to bring an exploration crew onto the disputed land before
9 a.m. Thursday.
The group dubbed the KI 6 is due back in court Wednesday where they are
appealing their six-month sentence for contempt of court. The Ontario
Appeals Court could decide they've served enough time and release them
or send them back to jail to serve out the remainder of their sentence.
After more than two months of confinement, rubbing shoulders with
criminals and being told when to eat and sleep, Morris said he is
trying to adjust to the "wide open spaces" he's used to.
He said the group is in good spirits and were welcomed home with a big
party Saturday night at the community hall.
"I'm trying to adjust to my old lifestyle but I'm having difficulty,"
he said.
"It was very difficult being institutionalized."
The brief reprieve gives the group, which includes deputy KI chief Jack
McKay and members Sam McKay, Darryl Sainnawap, Cecilia Begg and Bruce
Sakakeep, a chance to join supporters at the Ontario legislature Monday
for a multi-day rally aimed at pressing the Liberal government to allow
First Nations to say no to mining and forestry on their lands.
"The government, they have mouthed all the right words," event
organizer Jack Lapointe of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation said.
"They make these public statements about how they are meeting behind
closed doors with us and how they stand shoulder-to-shoulder with First
Nations but it's all B.S."
The government has said it's committed to changing Ontario's
100-year-old mining laws to include proper consultation with First
Nations but it will take time.
Still, Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle said
last month the government was not prepared to heed calls for a
moratorium that would stop mining companies from staking claims on
Crown land in the interim.
"I can't figure out Ontario. There's a lot of public support and public
criticism going their way and what is it going to take for them to
acknowledge our leadership, that we want to play a role in our future
too," Morris said.
"For them to say they're supporting us. OK, prove it...Give us that
opportunity where we sit side by side...and let's hammer out a new
arrangement how mining industries should operate in our last pocket of
environment that's clean."
Participants were going to use the event to call for the release of the
KI 6 prior to the unprecedented turn of events Friday but will still be
speaking out in support of Bob Lovelace of the Ardoch Algonquin First
Nation in eastern Ontario, who remains in solitary confinement on a
hunger strike for a similar breach.
Protesters, which will include members of KI, Ardoch, as well as Grassy
Narrows First Nation, will remain on the front lawn of the legislature
conducting traditional aboriginal ceremonies until May 29 - the
national aboriginal day of action and possibly the day the KI 6 are
required to turn themselves in to the Thunder Bay Correctional Centre.
