ADVENTURE AGENT SUPPORTS A MORITORIUM ON MINING IN POPULATED AREAS, IN PARTICULAR, EASTERN ONTARIO, NORTH FRONTENAC

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CALLS ON PROVINCE OF ONTARIO TO COMPLY TO CANADIAN CONSTITUTION
Amnesty International
News release
February 18, 2008

Canada: Algonquin leader faces jail time while Ontario government ignores the law

Amnesty International expressed its concern today over the sentencing of Ardoch Algonquin First Nation negotiator Bob Lovelace to six months in jail and a fine of $25,000 for his role in a protest over uranium exploration on disputed land in eastern Ontario.

The Ontario government has licensed Frontenac Ventures to carry out exploratory drilling on land that is part of a 25-year-old Algonquin land claim. The Ardoch Algonquin and Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nations have said that they were not even notified about the plans before trees were cut and blasting began.

On June 29, 2007, members of the Ardoch Algonquin and Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nations moved to block Frontenac's access to the site. The occupation ended after the province entered into talks about possible consultation processes, but these talks broke down earlier this month and the blockade was resumed..

On February 15, Lovelace and Ardoch co-chief Paula Sherman were convicted of contempt of court for failing to obey two injunctions against the occupation. While Sherman was able to reach an agreement to avoid jail time if she stays away from the protest, Lovelace has said he cannot make the same commitment.

A number of Algonquin supporters are also expected to be brought to trial in March accused of violating the same injunctions. "The situation defies justice," says Craig Benjamin, Amnesty International Canada's Campaigner for the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples. "Indigenous leaders and their supporters are facing stiff punishments for doing what they feel is necessary to protect rights that may one day be upheld in court or in the land claims process. Meanwhile the provincial government is ignoring its own legal obligations without any accountability."

Canadian courts have clearly established that whenever the rights of Indigenous peoples may be affected, governments have a legal duty to ensure that there must always be meaningful consultation to identify and accommodate Indigenous concerns. Depending on the potential impacts, courts have found that this legal duty may include other more stringent measures "to avoid irreparable harm", including in some cases agreeing to proceed only with the consent of the affected peoples.

Shortly before the blockade began last summer, a high level provincial inquiry into Indigenous land rights disputes in Ontario concluded that "the single biggest source of frustration, distrust, and ill- feeling among Aboriginal people in Ontario is our failure to deal in a just and expeditious way with breaches of treaty and other legal obligations to First Nations." The Ipperwash Inquiry report went on to recommend that provincial laws, policies and practices must be reformed to ensure that they are consistent with the government's legal obligations toward Indigenous peoples, including the duty of consultation, accommodation and consent.

The fact that provincial mining laws and policies are out of step with the constitutional duty of meaningful consultation is acknowledged in a January 2007 discussion paper issued by the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines. Despite this, the province continues to allow companies to stake claims and initiate exploration with little or no consideration of Indigenous interests.

In addition to the conflict over uranium mining in eastern Ontario, leaders from the Kitchenuhmaykoosib First Nation in northern Ontario are awaiting sentencing for contempt of court after continuing to oppose drilling activities in the face of an injunction. In the initial ruling in that case, the court sharply criticized the Ontario government for not having "heard or comprehended" repeated court affirmation of the duty of meaningful consultation and accommodation.

Amnesty International is calling on the province to work with Indigenous peoples to undertake immediate reform of provincial laws and policies that fail to respect and uphold the duty of meaningful consultation, accommodation and consent.

The province must also take urgent measures to address conflicts arising from its past failures to uphold that duty including by:

* committing to a negotiated resolution of the dispute;
* entering those negotiations in good faith without prejudging or limiting in advance the form and extent of accommodation required to respect and protect the rights of the Algonquin people; and
* taking measures in collaboration with the Algonquin people to ensure that their rights are not harmed while such negotiations are under way.

In the event of an appeal, Amnesty International urges the province to ensure the court is made fully aware of the underlying rights issues at stake, including the province's constitutional duty of consultation, accommodation and consent.

For more information:
Craig Benjamin
Campaigner for the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Amnesty International Canada
312 Laurier Ave. East,
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 1H9
1.613.744.7667 (ext. 235)
cbenjami@amnesty.ca

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BURY MY HEART AT ROBERTSVILLE
I have known Robert Lovelace and Harold Perry, both of the Ardoch Algonquin community, for several years now. They personify something that is strongly missing in our society today. They each have integrity.

It was this integrity which bound them to their word that the protest against uranium mining at Robertsville Ontario would be peaceful. Integrity compelled them to escort out of the blockade, outsiders who wanted to escalate the situation to classic confrontation.

I have never seen a situation like this has been. Protracted to several months, with all kinds of weather, it was a battleground, but no battle occurred except in dialogue. Because of the integrity, diligence and patience of Lovelace and Perry, even senior police officers commented on how that “this is the way all protests should be”.

Many readers may view the small collective of people here as insignificant, but this peaceful effort is from an area with a population density of 1.4 persons per square kilometre. The commitment to non-violence has even cynics in awe, because it was is enduring.

In the timeline of First Nations relating to Canada, this situation was a dot, not a mark. A moment. Mostly these peoples have struggled peacefully for hundreds of years. Think about that. Again, their integrity enabled them to trust the Ontario legal system and its political machine, and to take the word of Ontario representatives as honourable. In this spirit, they left the Robertsville mine site. With trust, honour and respect.

Ontario refused to carry the continuum in discussion, and the legal entities shut the door for the return of the First Nations to the land for which they were seeking protection. A “clever” slight-of-hand, common on the timeline of First Nations relating to Canada. This is a twenty-five year old claim, not something caused by this situation of alarm.

While many may applaud the court judgement which saw Robert Lovelace, a man of extraordinary integrity, patience, courage, and courtesy, handcuffed and carried away to prison, there is more to see. This summer past, and a few years ago, across Ontario we had roadblocks and trouble with some First Nations. Motorists were quoted as saying “How can they block us from going where we want”? Years ago, gunfire, and killing had the nation’s attention. These people have been culturally blockaded for centuries. Imagine. New immigrants to Canada seem to get more respect.

Robert Lovelace and Harold Perry have won respect from police officers and from the local communities around here. Indeed, the media failed to take aim at the fact that there was probably fivefold support from outside the First Nations.

In fact, it was not the First Nations who started this history-making community-building; this union of aboriginals and non aboriginals. It was a non aboriginal who sounded the alarm. It’s just that it also affected the First Nations, or as I prefer to think of them, First Neighbours.

This issue is not about land, it is about uranium. It was not about mineral extraction. It is about uranium extraction. It is about contaminating the waterways for a hundred kilometres; the Mississippi, the Ottawa and the Rideau system. It is about tainting the air with fine particulate borne equally distant. It is about the destruction of a portion of Ontario that is largely wilderness. It is about irreparable destruction of this region of 85% wilderness. These men stood in the breach for all of us.

The head of Frontenac Ventures, the company doing the prospecting, was an honourable man too, when he showed up at a public discussion in Almonte Ontario. At that time he was asked “would you live there, right beside the uranium mine”? To this, he responded “Yes …”

I am looking forward to seeing how soon this man sells his house in the Oakville/Toronto area, packs his bags and leaves to live beside the pit of potential pollution that this mine will generate. Perhaps Bay Street's shimmering gold windows and quartz-flecked white towers are too comfortable to leave. If he is willing to place his house within a half mile of the present entrance to the Robertsville mine, and draw water from the aquifer his company will breach; if he is willing to leave his windows open during the day and night, as we do, and bring along with him his relatives to this community, then he may demonstrate some integrity.

First Nations, through Robert Lovelace, have again been made something of an object lesson by the Ontario court, but there is a shadow that follows Mr. Lovelace. This Canada and the world are watching. Christian Peacemakers, Amnesty International. This is another sad day for First Nations people. But new leaders arise, study, and carry forward. But what a shame on this country.

In spite of this heartbreak, we are all glad to say that this is within Canada. Our national tolerance has permitted much dialogue and learning. I am proud to be Canadian, and proud that my great grandfather, great uncles, grandfather, uncles, my father, and my mother, who volunteered into the British Army, all fought for our right to democratically confront each other. This is all about a celebrating this gift.

Mr. Lovelace. You are not alone.

Dave Martin, Snow Road Station

The information provided above relates to the potential development of a Uranium mine at Robertsville Ontario. The Robertsville uranium mine would be developed at Robertsville, near Sharbot Lake, North Frontenac Township, Frontenac County, in Eastern Ontario. Robertsville was one of several small community stops on the Kingston & Pembroke Railway line. Now reliant on tourism and mineral and timber extraction, the Robertsville mine does not bode well for eco tourism, which the County and the Townships have been trying to promote.

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