Logging protesters continue to do battle

Page 2

Protesters blocking a logging access road north of Meadow Lake have settled in for the winter and are renewing their struggle to halt logging. The Protectors of Mother Earth, whose members are manning the blockade, have filed a complaint with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission against the Saskatchewan government.

The group alleges Minister of Natural Resources Eldon Lautermilch and his predecessors are guilty of racial discrimination in the approval of logging in the area and

in their dealings with the protesters.

"The government has repeatedly ignored our rights under the treaties, under the Natural Resources Transfer Agreement and under the constitution," said spokesperson Cecilia Iron.

An agreement between the government and a local forestry company completely ignores aboriginal rights and licenses to trap, hunt, fish for food and harvest wild rice, she said.

"The logging has interfered with our uses of the land and our rights.

"Now the government is taking court action to evict us from the camp we have set up near the blockade. The reasons we have a camp is to protect our rights. In trying to evict us, the government is once again discriminating against us on the basis of our race," she said.

The protesters are from the Canoe Lake band in northern Saskatchewan. The blockade was set up in May to protest clear-cutting around the Meadow Lake Tribal Council's nine member communities.

On June 30 at around midnight, the camp was stormed by more than 80 RCMP officers equipped with riot gear and 30 people - some of them elders - were arrested and charged with illegally blocking a highway. They were all released the following morning and began making their ways back to the blockade.

The government has since dropped the charges.

In the fall, protesters built cabins and a school out of logs already cut by Mistik Management, the company harvesting in the area.

On Dec. 9, the provincial government asked the courts to evict the protesters

from their camp, claiming they are illegally occupying Crown land. That decision has

been postponed to Jan. 14, said Leon Iron, a member of the Canoe Lake band.

Iron, 69, said he doesn't think the government will agree to evicting Natives from Treaty 10 land.

But the mood at the camp is tense. Many people have drifted away; others are losing their jobs in nearby communities because they supported the protesters. Iron and the other elders are having a hard time keeping angry young men calm when they are tired of sitting quietly.

In another move, Tim Quigley, lawyer for the Protectors of Mother Earth, asked the court in October to decide if harvesting trees is a development under environmental legislation.

If it is, the government must order an environmental assessment.

Court of Queen's bench Justice Ross Wimmer, who is presiding over the judicial review, said the question of whether harvesting is a development is important for the environment minister to know.

The review was adjourned until Dec. 23.