Canada and Ontario jailing First Nation leaders for protecting their lands and waters
Rallys and Protests over KI-6 Continue -- Ontario Impact Internationally Uncertain
09 April 2008
"These conflicts could have been avoided, if the McGuinty government had listened to Aboriginal people and removed these lands from mining."
"The problem here is the antiquated 'free entry' system that allows mining and exploration without consultation with affected First Nations communities or consideration of other values such as ecological values, trapping, hunting, clean water or even consideration of climate change impacts," said Joan Kuyek, National Coordinator of MiningWatch Canada.
These statements were made today, in Toronto, in preparation of a rally to be held at the Ryerson Student Centre. The rally is in support of both the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) Band Chief and Councillors, and Robert Lovelace of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation.
Both groups are jailed for what their supporters state is their peaceful opposition to mining efforts on their traditional territories in Ontario.
The rally which is sponsored by the KI Nation, NAN, the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, and several other groups, will be addressed by both National Chief Phil Fontaine and former National Chief Ovide Mecredi of the Assembly of First Nations. KI Chief Donny Morris will address the rally by phone from his jail.
In Thunder Bay today, there is another smaller rally planned outside the Valhalla Inn, where the Northern Ontario Prospectors Association is Holding their 2008 Northern Ontario Mines and Minerals Symposium.
According to the KI Nation, "The Rally is to send a message to the participants that the mining industry and the Ontario are holding KI leaders captive while they continue to exploit out First Nations and natural resources.
As this issue continues to garner world-wide support, the Minister of Northern Mines and Development, Michael Gravelle is preparing to unveil the Ontario pavilian, at one of hte largest mining-related trade shows in the world, Expomin, takes place April 15 to 18 in Santiago, Chile.
At the Ontario Exhibit, housed in the Canadian pavilion, companies will promote their products and services. The province is organizing the Ontario Exhibit at the show, which features close to a thousand exhibitors from 25 countries showcasing some 3000 brands related to the mining industry.
“Opportunities for new business contacts and contracts abound at international shows like this,” said Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle. “I am delighted we can help Northern Ontario suppliers promote our region’s world class mining products and services.”
It is difficult to assess what message is being received by potential investors, and mining companies from the recent actions in Ontario.
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Some important quotes and information From Tyance Fiddler, studying law at the University of Ottawa ...
In Criminal Law class yesterday, we spoke about politically motivated crimes and I was thinking of the KI 6 in jail. In Europe, England and more recently Australia, if you commit a crime that is politically motivated, it is viewed differently than a ‘criminal’ crime, and the sentence is modified. Canada and the US don’t take this approach and political advocates are charged with as much force as other criminals. There were some good quotes in the chapter.
This following quote is from an Australian High Court Justice (equivalent of Supreme Court in Canada) who was talking about an Aboriginal activist, Neal, who was charged with unlawful entry onto property in 1982. He was protesting the taking of Aboriginal lands. At the original trial, Neal was convicted and sentenced to two months of hard labor. He appealed this to the Court of Appeal who also ruled against him and in fact increased his sentence to six months of hard labor. The High Court allowed the appeal and reduced his punishment to a $130 fine saying:
“That Mr. Neal was an agitator or stirrer in the magistrate’s view obviously contributed to the severe penalty. If he is an agitator, he is in good company. Many of the great religious and political figures of history have been agitators, and human progress owes much to the efforts of these and the many who are unknown. As Oscar Wilde aptly pointed out:
‘Agitators are a set of interfering, meddling people, who come down to some perfectly contented class of the community and sow the seeds of discontent amongst them. That is the reason why agitators are so absolutely necessary. Without them, in our incomplete state, there would be no advance towards civilization’.
Mr. Neal is entitled to be an agitator.”
There is also a good quote from Nelson Mandela, who is a lawyer, addressing the Court just before he was sentenced to jail for protesting in South Africa:
“I regard it as a duty which I owed, not just to my people, but also to my profession, to the practice of law, and to justice for all mankind, to cry out against this discrimination which is essentially unjust…I believed that in taking up a stand against this injustice I was upholding the dignity of what should be an honorable profession…The law as it is applied, the law as it has been developed over a long period of history, and especially the law as it is written and designed by the nationalist government, is a law which in our view, is immoral, unjust, and intolerable. Our consciences dictate that we must protest against it, that we must oppose it, and that we must attempt to alter it”.
He went on to talk specifically about the protest he was involved in:
“…some of the things so far told to the court are true and some are untrue. I do not, however, deny that I planned sabotage. I did not plan it in a spirit of recklessness, nor because I have any love of violence. I planned it as a result of a calm and sober assessment of the political situation that had arisen after many years of tyranny, exploitation and oppression of my people by the whites. I admit immediately that I was one of the persons who helped to form Umkhonto We Sizwe, and that I played a prominent role in its affairs until I was arrested in August, 1962”
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Consultation Not Consent - The First Interview with KI Political Prisoner Cecilia Begg
by Jon Thompson - April 11, 2008
Cecilia Begg is the Head Councillor of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation. She is the lone female in what has come to be known as the KI6: a group of six KI community leaders that blockaded a mining company from its licensed operations on their traditional territory in Northwestern Ontario. In March, the community leaders were sentenced to six months for contempt of court.
On April 2, journalist Jon Thompsom spoke with Begg at the prison in Kenora, Ontario. During her first interview since her incarceration, Begg spoke about the road that has led her arrest, the reasons she is fighting the development, and the path that she hopes will emerge from her imprisonment.
Jon Thompson: The land entitlement claim that KI filed back in 2000 had been licensed to junior mining company, Platinex. Did that claim have anything to do with the fact that the government licensed a mining operation on the traditional territory of your people?
Cecilia Begg: We're still trying to get the Treaty Land Entitlement (TLE). That was one of the things we asked for. A solution has to accommodate [the government] revoking the license to Platinex.
How do you feel it would affect your community if the Platinex mine were to go ahead?
From the way things are, it would be a drastic change for our community. It would endanger the animals, our tradition and the culture of our people.
On September 24th, 2007, Platinex company employees were met at the KI airport by members of the community. They then charged you and the others with contempt, which you did not defend in court. What really happened that day?
They [Platinex Employees] came into town and they were going to set up an office in the community and then fly into the site. They were there to do what they called archeological studies. We had been saying no all along and they came anyway.
They were met outside the plane and told they weren't welcome in the community; that we were adamant about fighting for our land. They finally left later in the day. I left that morning for a meeting down south but I was in the party that blockaded their entry to our land.
You're a mother, a grandmother, and a great grandmother. A lot of the mobilization around your political struggle has related to your being a woman. Can you explain the connection?
Three years ago, I decided that if it came to doing a jail sentence to defend our land, I would. I could have got out of it. When we were first sentenced, I met with [Nishinawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief] Stan Beardy and [Assembly of First Nations National Chief] Phil Fontaine. They were concerned that I was the only female serving a jail term and that maybe their lawyers could work towards an appeal process. But since I'm the only female, I felt the importance to go through with it and I wanted to stand by my original decision until such time as we get a positive answer to what we're asking for.
In our culture, it's important to show respect to the females. They are the ones who are mothers, grandmothers, great grandmothers, elders. You go on with things in that process. We're doing this on behalf of the ladies back home. They play an important role.
The women of Nishinawbe Aski Nation's Women's Council are fasting today to raise attention to your story. They're saying that in jailing you and the other imprisoned leaders, the Ontario government is creating heroes. How do you feel about that?
I don't know. My being in jail fighting for what I believe is ours…our rights, our land, for future generations. It's not about me, it's about the people back home. I appreciate their support…and the support from all over.
I want people back home to know that I'm doing all right. I have the support and prayers of many. In our culture it's encouraged to put the creator ahead of everything. That's what I believe in.
Did you see the demonstration marching by the jail last Saturday for you?
The glass is real thick upstairs so we couldn't get a clear view but we could hear the drumming and we could see the colours and that there were many people. That meant a lot to me, especially seeing so many people from back home who were able to join the rally.
One of the concerns from John Cutfeet [who negotiated on behalf of KI] was that the 2006 court ruling required the government to consult First Nations before companies could begin operations. In his words to me last summer, "First Nations gained the right to sit at the table, but they don't have the right to leave the table". To him, that wasn't legitimate consultation. What needs to be included in the consultation process that is not included now?
To go back to square one and ensure the proper steps are taken this time. There has to be changes. We have to be properly notified if there are even surveys going on. That has to happen before anything happens. The camps up North, there are signs of the land being staked. Land is being surveyed over the summer and winter with no consultation. Our treaty rights have to be respected.
In an interview with Aboriginal People's Television News, new provincial Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant said the government is working to overturn the decision that put you in prison, and that the crown had never asked for imprisonment. What does that support mean to you and what do you think is going to happen?
I'm not sure. I've been talking with people from back home and what the minister is passing on is not entirely true. They say he lied about the number of times he has been there. Once, he made a press release prior to coming to our community saying that we're coming to some sort of an agreement. We hadn't reached any sort of agreement with him. That didn't sit well with us.
What's do you think is going to happen at the end of your sentence?
I'm just taking it a day at a time, trying to get as much information as I can from back home. It's a long process, trying to get information. I haven't been able to speak with the other men [imprisoned in Thunder Bay] until today. We're encouraging each other by knowing we're doing fine. That's all we can do.
Is there any chance that there could be any sort of agreement with the company?
At the moment, the answer is still no. We haven't changed. It will be up to the future generations and future leaders to allow or not allow development. We're not for or against development but there's too much at stake and we have to get our community ready for that. It will be up to the future generation and we can't foresee what they will need. We're keeping the land for them.
NOTE: Cecilia Begg, being held in a Kenora jail, was the lone woman arrested and hasn't been able to speak to the men who are incarcerated in Thunder Bay.