Grassy Narrows: Overview
A clearcut on the Grassy Narrows traditional territory
"This clearcut logging has destroyed our traplines and threatens to eliminate our ability to practice our way of life, our culture, our economy, and our spirituality. Our fundamental ability to traditionally harvest to feed and support our families, as we have for millennia, is being jeopardized." -- Grassy Narrows calls for a moratorium, January 2007
Update: 28 February 2008
Amnesty International welcomes the announcement that multinational paper company Boise Inc. will stop purchasing wood fiber from the traditional territory of the Grassy Narrows First Nation in northern Ontario until that community has given its consent to logging: Paper company sets an example for the Province of Ontario to follow.
About the People of Grassy Narrows
The flooding of their lands. The poisoning of their waters. And now the clear cutting of their traditional hunting and trapping territories.
The people of Grassy Narrows, an Anishnabe First Nation in northwest Ontario, have repeatedly suffered the devastating impact of government decisions made without their consent -- or even the good faith consultation and accommodation of the community's concerns that is required by Canadian law in every instance that Indigenous rights and interests may be affected.
In 2002, community members launched a blockade to stop logging in the area. The blockade, which still stands, is now one of the longest running Indigenous land protests in Canadian history.
In January, 2007, the people of Grassy Narrows called for a moratorium on logging and other resource development in their traditional territory.
In September 2007, the province appointed a high level negotiator to lead talks with the Grassy Narrows First Nation. Amnesty International has urged the province to respect the community’s call for a moratorium as interim measure to ensure that no further harm is done to their rights while these talks are proceeding.
In a September 2007 briefing paper, Amnesty International also called on companies logging at Grassy Narrows or buying wood and wood fiber from the territory to “work toward a voluntary suspension of logging in the Grassy Narrows traditional territory and/or establish alternative sources for wood fibre, taking into consideration the fact that the people of Grassy Narrows have not given their consent to large-scale logging in their traditional territory."
Updated: 28 February 2008