Permits for logging are issued by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), often with inadequate protection for Indigenous rights.
Credit: Christian Peacemaker Teams
Grassy Narrows residents allow logging trucks to leave the forest, but not to enter. Slant Lake
Credit: Christian Peacemaker Teams
Andrew Kewaatin, a trapper at Grassy Narrows, has been writing to government officials for almost a decade to ask that his rights be respected.
Credit: Amnesty International.
Chrissy and Bonnie Swain singing at the blocade. 17 April 2007
Credit: Amnesty International
A community member advises the driver that a traditional hunt will be displacing logging operations
Credit: Christian Peacemaker Teams
Site of the Slant Lake blockade. 17 April 2007
Credit: Amnesty International
Bonnie, Chrissie and Adrian Swain. Young women from Grassy Narrows have been critical to the fight against clear-cutting.
Credit: Amnesty International
Steve Fobister, Grassy Narrows Band Council with Forestry Porfolio, in front of clearcut on his family trapline
Credit: David Sone / Rainforest Action Network
Steve Fobister, Grassy Narrows Band Councillor
"The forest should be protected. Whatever trees we have left should remain for our purposes and our survival as a people. For over a century we have shared the land, but Abitibi and Weyerhaeuser have abused our generosity for too long. The Provincial government must stop abusing our human rights by destroying the Boreal Forest that we depend on."