From Stockhouse.com

Supreme Court will hear First Nations challenge on Ontario logging rights

OTTAWA - The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear a challenge of the Ontario government's right to permit industrial logging on the traditional lands of the Grassy Narrows First Nation.
 
The First Nation appealed after Ontario's highest court ruled in March that the province has the right to "take up" treaty land for forestry and mining.
 
The northwestern Ontario First Nation has spent nearly 15 years in court fighting the province's decision to issue a licence for clearcut operations in parts of the Keewatin portion of Treaty 3 territory.
 
Chief Simon Fobister says Ontario continues to plan for clearcut logging throughout Grassy Narrows Territory and is seeking input on a new 10-year forest management plan that includes dozens of large clearcuts.
 
The First Nation says scientific studies indicate that clearcut logging in boreal watersheds raises mercury levels in fish above the Health Canada limit for safe human consumption.
 
It adds recent clearcut logging in Grassy Narrows territory has exacerbated the impact of mercury poisoning that began when a paper mill upstream in Dryden dumped mercury between 1962 and 1970.
 
"Our community has suffered for too long from the impacts of industry imposed on our people," said Joseph Fobister, one of the Grassy Narrows trappers who initiated the legal action.
 
"We cannot allow industry to further damage our way of life and our health by poisoning our water and destroying the forests that we depend on," he said.
 
Joseph Fobister called the decision by the Supreme Court to hear the case "further proof that our concerns are valid and important."
 
"It is sad that Ontario continues to ignore us when we tell them that clearcut logging hurts our people," he said.