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MAY 27th, 2008 |
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FIRST NATION TAKES PROTEST TO LAWN OF ONT. LEGISLATURE 1) FIRST NATION TAKES PROTEST TO LAWN OF ONT. LEGISLATURE May 27, 2008 /9:05 AM CBC News A mining dispute in northern Ontario has moved to the front lawn of the Ontario legislature. Native and environmental protesters have set up a three-day camp on the grounds of Queen's Park, asking the government to revise the province's mining legislation. They also want Premier Dalton McGuinty to grant six jailed native leaders a reprieve. To read the rest of this article go to, http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2008/05/27/k1-protest.html 2) CCAMU NETWORKS WITH FATHER MARCO ARANA OF PERU CCAMU members had the pleasure of meeting with Father Marco Arana on Saturday May 24 in Maberly. Father Arana was in Canada as a guest of the Export Development Corporation who had asked him to address one of their roundtables on Canadian mining practices in Peru. Father Marco, a catholic priest from Peru's northern Andean mountains, has been working with indigenous farming communities in Peru for18 years. In 1991 Marco mounted a lawsuit against the largest gold mining corporation in the world - Newmont Mining of Colorado - for the company's unfair and underhanded methods of coercing and tricking peasant farmers off their land. The communities won their lawsuit and received a settlement, but the mine was constructed and is now South America's largest gold mine. Father Marco founded a non-profit organization called GRUFIDES to monitor the mine's activities and defend farming communities throughout his state embroiled in conflicts with transnational corporations. He has won several awards and recognitions for his work, including the prestigious human rights award from Peru's National Coordinating Office for Human Rights for his role as mediator in a two-week blockade of the mine by farming communities. Thanks to Father Marco's efforts, the conflict was resolved peacefully, and thanks to the Canadian government we were able to share stories with a fascinating and experienced activist. While in Canada Father Marco was determined to initiate links between his activist community and our own. He met with activist organizations in Toronto and will be attending the Gathering of Earth Protectors in Toronto next week. Before arriving in Maberly he visited Bob Lovelace in jail where they found they had much in common, particularly their respective philosophies of peaceful resistance. Accompanying Marco and translating for him was Stepanie Boyd, a Canadian filmaker and journalist who has living and working for the last 11 years in Peru. Stephanie has made two award-winning documentaries about the communities Marco has worked with and her most recent film is about the surveillance and persecution of Father Marco for his eco-activist activities. Recently, uranium exploration has started in Peru and since it has no nuclear power plants, most Peruvians know little about uranium mining and its attendant dangers. Father Marco asked many questions about our experience in fighting uranium mining and gratefully accepted CCAMU's offer to provide his organization with information and support. Another link in the chain of worldwide resistance to uranium. Sheila McDonald 3) OCAMU HOLDS DEMONSTRATION IN OTTAWA Ottawa, Sparks Street Mall - Monday, May 26th, 2008 -12 to 1 pm. A determined group of protesters from ActCity Ottawa, OCAMU, Eco-Justice, Raging Grannies and concerned citizens met across from the CBC studio windows to protest the threat of Uranium Mines in the Ottawa River watershed. Despite the threat of rain, petition signing went on and a few hundred of our new 'No Uranium Mine' flyers were distributed asking people to contact Mr McGuinty and demand a moratorium on this defining issue. For more information about the Ottawa Coalition Against Mining Uranium go to, 4) PRESS RELEASE: ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR. QUESTION MCGUINTY OVER OUTDATED MINING LAW AND JAILED NATIONS' LEADERS May 23,
2008 Premier McGuinty responded to a similar letter from twenty high profile Canadians late last month by claiming the "work is already under way" on a commitment to review the Mining Act, supporting an "expedited appeal" for the jailed First Nations' leaders, and citing the "need to modernize the (Mining) act so that it is in keeping with our values and expectations at the beginning of the 21st century." But First Nations and conservation activists close to the issue say that no apparent action has been taken. "Premier McGuinty has been beseeched by the conservation community, well respected Canadians, Amnesty International, and the clergy to reform the mining law, protect the Boreal Forest, and respect Aboriginal rights. But, despite several statements, no action has been taken to date," noted Anna Baggio of the CPAWS Wildlands League. "The world expects better of Canada," added Susan Casey-Lefkowitz of the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, DC, "This issue is escalating to an international embarrassment while the First Nations' leaders continue to sit in jail." Mr. Kennedy is an attorney with her organization. Six members of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) and Robert Lovelace of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation are currently serving extended jail sentences for peacefully opposing mineral exploration on their lands. Mr. Lovelace began a hunger strike last week after serving three months of his six month sentence and is now in solitary confinement. This is the second time Mr. Kennedy has weighed in on behalf of the KI. He wrote a letter of support in June 2006 after several members of the band walked 1,200 miles from their lands in Northern Ontario to Ottawa to bring attention to the lack of consultation by the province. Mr. Kennedy has worked on environmental issues across the Americas and has assisted several indigenous tribes in Latin America and Canada in successfully negotiating treaties protecting traditional homelands. Mr. Kennedy's letter will be read at a rally planned for Monday, May 26th at 5 pm in Queens' Park, Toronto. For a copy of the letter, please see www.wildlandsleague.org 5) MPP PETER TABUNS INTRODUCES ENERGY BILL Peter Tabuns, MPP (NDP Energy Critic), has introduced a private members bill to the Ontario Legislature that would make it illegal to build a simple-cycle power plant larger than 30 megawatts in Northern York Region (NYR). Bill 79 also instructs the Ontario Power Authority to take every reasonable action to meet NYR's electricity needs with a combination of energy conservation and demand management, renewable energy and high-efficiency natural gas-fired combined heat and power plants. If passed, the bill will prevent the Ontario Power Authority from contracting with a power developer for the construction of a low efficiency 350-400 megawatt power plant in NYR. You can support Mr. Tabuns' bill by signing our petition at www.petitiononline.com/nyr/petition.html. We need to demonstrate that there is widespread support for a more climate friendly approach to energy planning in Ontario. Please sign it today and get your friends and family to sign too! You can read Mr. Tabuns' private members bill at www.cleanairalliance.org/nyr. Please pass this message on to your friends. Thank you. Jessica
Fracassi, Communications & Membership Director 6)
ARTICLE: WHY IS DEFENDING ANCESTRAL LANDS A CRIME? By Jim Coyle When Premier Dalton McGuinty was explaining why Legislature rules needed changing, he liked to say that codes written in the time of gas lamps were hardly suited to a BlackBerry age. To read the rest of this article go to, http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/429469 7) ARTICLE: CONTAMINANTS SUSPECTED TO HAVE LEACHED INTO LAKE ONTARIO AT PORT HOPE May 22, 2008 Cameco Corporation, the company that owns a shutdown nuclear processing plant in Port Hope, said contaminants may have leached into Lake Ontario. To read the rest of this article go to, http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2008/05/22/port-hope.html
May 24, 2008 TORONTO - A group of northern Ontario aboriginal leaders jailed over a dispute with a mining exploration company got a temporary reprieve Friday, but their lawyer said they could be back in jail as early as next week if the province doesn't change the Mining Act. To read the rest of this article go to, http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gjh0MY5hY7OSM-1ioG88FDV5Pt4w 9) ARTICLE: CAP ON GREEN-POWER SUPPLIERS CRITICIZED; PROVINCE'S RULES TO HELP 'SMALL GUYS' WILL CHILL INVESTORS, CRITICS SAY The Toronto
Star It could be lights out for renewable electricity in Ontario if the province goes ahead with new rules, industry officials say. To read the rest of this article go to, |