Police Arrest Grassy Narrows Supporters (Canada)

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15 July, 2006 — by The Rainbow Forest Network

Grassy Narrows - More than 50 police officers have been mobilized to monitor approximately 100 Grassy Narrows supporters and community members camped at the Grassy Narrows blockade site. Between 12 and 30 police vehicles are present on highway 671 to Grassy Narrows, stopping traffic - approximately a dozen arrests have been made and charges laid. White arrestees have been cited and released on mischief charges, while Natives and other people of colour have been taken to jail and interrogated before release and charged.

The police crackdown comes two days after a peaceful protest on Thursday, which blocked part of the TransCanada highway bypass north of Kenora. Supporters of environmental and social justice acted with the Grassy Narrows community members to block the path of log trucks taking hardwood trees clearcut without consent on Grassy Narrows' traditional territory to the Weyerhaeuser Timberstrand mill in Kenora.

The highway blockade was the latest development in a decade-long effort by the Grassy Narrows community to end logging without consent on the community's traditional territory. Community members have filed official complaints, environmental assessment requests, lawsuits and engaged in public protest and a blockade of a logging road on their territory - now in its fourth year. Logging companies Weyerhaeuser and Abitibi continue to use wood clearcut on Grassy Narrows' traditional territory while the McGuinty Provincial government fails to address longstanding Native land rights issues and a growing crisis of mismanagement in the Boreal forest - one of the earth's last intact original forest ecosystems.

"Weyerhaeuser is destroying the Grassy Narrows' ancient way of life and an ecosystem vital to our planet's health while the McGuinty government refuses to act to resolve this crisiss," said David Sone, an organizer with the Rainforest Action Network. "Instead of dealing with the root issues of neglected Native land rights and ecological devastation, the authorities have chosen to criminalize dissent and punish peaceful protesters and Native people as they assert their inherent rights." ..

http://www.firstperspective.ca/fp_template.php?path=20060715grassy

[struggle4progress]

1. Mischief charges laid as result of highway blockade

Ontario Provincial Police have charged nine protesters in conjunction with last Thursday’s protest which blocked the Trans-Canada Highway.

By Shelley Bujold
Miner and News
with files from Canadian Press
Monday July 17, 2006

Ontario Provincial Police have charged nine protesters in conjunction with last Thursday’s protest which blocked the Trans-Canada Highway.

Activists blocked the Highway 17A bypass north of Kenora for the entire day as nearly 100 people protested clear-cutting taking place near Grassy Narrows First Nation, which they said was also having an impact on their rights as aboriginal people.

Ontario Provincial Police made arrests over the weekend, charging nine individuals from various communities across the province with mischief. These people were released pending a court date Sept. 18.

The protesters erected a 10-metre metal tripod in the middle of the Trans-Canada and suspended a woman from it. Another woman chained herself to the axle of a logging truck and others chained themselves to barrels filled with cement. The full blockade was taken down Thursday night... http://www.kenoradailyminerandnews.com/story.php?id=242395

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2. 9 more arrested at Grassy Narrows

27 July, 2006

KENORA, ON, July 27 - Last night, Ontario Provincial Police officers arrested Chrissy Swain, member of the Grassy Narrows First Nation, and 8 supporters on English River Road. The group had been blocking trucks hauling logs to Weyerhaeuser's TrusJoist mill in Kenora since Tuesday afternoon to demand a moratorium on clear cut logging within the community's Traditional Territory. The nine were charged with mischief and released early this morning on the condition that they leave Kenora within 24 hours.

The arrests marked the first time ever that a member of the First Nation community has been arrested for defending its Traditional Territory from logging.

"Weyerhaeuser and Abitibi are destroying our people by logging our Boreal Forest," said Chrissy Swain, a young Grassy Narrows mother from the blockade site. "We've been passive for too long while we've suffered from the impacts of industrial logging. Our people are sick and we can't afford to allow this anymore. We are standing up to protect our land and our children's future." ...

http://www.firstperspective.ca/fp_template.php?path=20060727grassy