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MAY 30th, 2008 |
THIS URANIUM
NEWS IS DEVOTED TO THE PRESS COVERAGE OF ROBERT LOVELACE AND THE KI SIX.
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1) REPORT: TORONTO, KINGSTON AND BOB 2) ROBERT LOVELACE LEADS CBC'S "AS IT HAPPENS" 3) ARTICLE: ABORIGINALS GIRD FOR A FIGHT AS COURT WIN IN ONTARIO BOLSTERS CAUSE 4) ARTICLE: LOVELACE FREED, BATTLE CONTINUES 5) DONNA DILLMAN COMMENTS ON: LOVELACE FREED, BATTLE CONTINUES 6) ARTICLE: A MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE 8) ARTICLE: ABORIGINAL PROTESTERS RELEASE IN MINING CASE 9) ARTICLE: COURT FREES 7 ONT. ABORIGINALS PROTESTING MINERAL EXPLORATION 10) ARTICLE: SEVEN ABORIGINAL PROTESTERS GRANTED RELEASE BY ONTARIO APPEAL COURT 11) ARTICLE: ACTIVIST TARGET LONG-STANDING PROBLEMS ON ABORIGINAL ACTION DAY 13) ARTICLE: PROTESTERS SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN JAILED; CRITICS 14) ARTICLE: FIRST NATIONS VS. MINING ACT 15) ARTICLE: RECONCILIATIONS IS DIFFICULT AFTER A REMARK THAT HURTS 16) CCAMU ARCHIVED PRESS RELEASE: FREE AT LAST: ROBERT LOVELACE & KI SIX SET FREE!
Thank you everyone, for the many letters expressing your joy about Bob's release. Your support is so vital as it keeps us moving forward towards our goal. Now that Bob has been set free, he can return home to reconnect with his family for a few days. One of his first requests was to be able to get his bare feet into some green grass. David Spivey picked up on this request in his latest "Uranium Ewes" cartoon, welcoming Bob back to the outside world. To see David's cartoon, check out the front page of our website http://www.ccamu.ca Most of the CCAMU team has now returned home from Toronto to rest up before the court hearing on Monday June 2nd in Kingston, Ontario. There has been much speculation about what will happen on Monday, given the Court of Appeal's decision to release all seven of the Aboriginal leaders but when it comes right down to it, nobody can read the minds of Justice Cunningham and Frontenac Ventures' Lawyer, Mr. Smitheman. It is very important to keep the pressure on so we ask that you come out and show your support. Court begins at 10am and there are plans being made to hold an all night vigil outside of the courthouse on June 1st. I will send out more information as it becomes available. I believe the events over these past few days could be summarized in this quote taken from Christine Blatchford's May 29th article in the Globe & Mail. ".as a packed courtroom erupted in applause and incredulous shouts of joy, lawyer Julian Falconer leaned over and spoke quietly to one of the aboriginal leaders who are his clients. "Savour this," he said. "Once in a while, out of the deep, dark depths, comes justice." Lynn Daniluk 2) ROBERT LOVELACE LEADS CBC'S "AS IT HAPPENS" On Thursday May 29, 2008, Robert Lovelace was lead story on CBC Radio's "As It Happens". Take from the CBC website, DAY OF PROTEST Duration: 00:07:16 "Today is Robert Lovelace's first day of freedom in some time. He spent the last one-hundred days in prison, for trying to block a mining company from drilling on Native land. Yesterday, a court released him, even though he refused to agree to stop interfering with the company's work, and he still had two-and-a-half months left in his sentence. Today, he's back on the streets, protesting for Native rights as part of the national Day of Action. We reached him at a rally in Toronto. To hear his interview go to, http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/asithappens/20080529-aih-1.wmv 3) ARTICLE: ABORIGINALS GIRD FOR A FIGHT AS COURT WIN IN ONTARIO BOLSTERS CAUSE Globe and
Mail May 29, 2008 "If ever you wondered why there is a National Day of Action for Canada's aboriginal people - it's today - you should have been at the Ontario Court of Appeal yesterday." I cannot reprint this article in this entire article in the Uranium News. You must either purchase it or be a Goble and Mail subscriber, to have access to this article on-line. For more information go to, 4) ARTICLE: LOVELACE FREED, BATTLE CONTINUES By L. H.
Tiffany Hsieh "After more than three months in jail, Robert Lovelace is coming home. On Wednesday, the Ontario Court of Appeal in Toronto released the former chief of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nations with time served and fines suspended until decision, details of which have yet to be released." http://www.kingstonthisweek.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1051533&auth= 5) DONNA DILLMAN COMMENTS ON: LOVELACE FREED, BATTLE CONTINUES In regard
to comments by George White in your article, "Lovelace freed, battle
continues," in an information session in late 2007, Mr. White declared
that "they were an exploration company, not a mining company." The Algonquin law in question is about the health of the land and its people. It is not about who gets what job and how many are made available. What good are jobs if the Mississippi River system ends up as the Serpent River system did - as a result of open pit uranium mining in the Elliot Lake, ON area - dead, while the risk of several cancers, birth defects and mortalities are increased. With every
hole dug, and there will be over 100 of them, Radon Gas is released. According
to Health Canada and the US Surgeon General, radon is the second leading
cause of lung cancer, after smoking. There has never been a safe uranium
mine, so I'm not buying Mr. White's assertion that, My children and grandchildren deserve better than to be the guinea pigs (or canaries) for such an endeavour. In the bigger picture, it is clear that the need for uranium for use in generating nuclear energy is unsafe, enormously expensive and not the panacea for the environment that it is toted to be. It is incumbent on us to wake up and realize that this is not a Native issue. Uranium damage is essentially forever, and the resulting pain, misery and suffering, will effect all of us - regardless of skin colour or culture. When the Shabots and the Ardochs, including recently released Queen's lecturer Bob Lovelace, appear in court in Kingston on June 2nd for sentencing on their second contempt charge, this grandmother will be among those cheering them on for their heroic stance. I'm not alone in finding it strange and maddening that similar charges against nine white protesters (settlers) have been withdrawn or dropped. Settler, Donna Dillman 6) ARTICLE: A MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE May 30,
2008 "Since February, when Bob Lovelace was jailed for protesting at a proposed uranium mine site near Sharbot Lake, the provincial government has been hiding behind the law." To read the rest of this article go to, http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1051254 7) ARTICLE: SHARBOT LAKE PROTESTER RELEASED FROM JAIL; APPEALS COURT REDUCES SENTENCES TO TIME SERVED Jordana
Huber An aboriginal leader jailed for defying a court order while staging protests at a potential uranium mine near Sharbot Lake has been released. To read the rest of this article go to, http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/city/story.html?id=e1b465cd 8) ARTICLE: ABORIGINAL PROTESTERS RELEASE IN MINING CASE May 28,
2008 An Ontario Court of Appeal judge released native leader Bob Lovelace and six members of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) today. "You are a free man, my friend," said Sam McKay, one of the released KI members to Lovelace. "You too, you are a free man," Lovelace said smiling. To read the rest of this article go to, http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/432683 9) ARTICLE: COURT FREES 7 ONT. ABORIGINALS PROTESTING MINERAL EXPLORATION Jordana
Huber, Canwest News Service TORONTO - An Ontario Appeal court Wednesday reduced the six-month jail sentences of seven aboriginal protesters incarcerated over disputes with mining companies to time served. To read the rest of this article go to, http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=55f7d9b6-ec6e- 10) ARTICLE: SEVEN ABORIGINAL PROTESTERS GRANTED RELEASE BY ONTARIO APPEAL COURT May 28, 2008 By Tobi
Cohen, The Canadian Press TORONTO - Moments after the Ontario Court of Appeal decided he'd served enough time behind bars, the last of seven aboriginal protesters jailed over disputes with mining exploration companies walked out of court saying he planned to stroll barefoot in the grass. http://www.660news.com/news/national/article.jsp?content=n0528134A 11) ARTICLE: ACTIVIST TARGET LONG-STANDING PROBLEMS ON ABORIGINAL ACTION DAY May 29,
2008 "Thousands of aboriginal Canadians gathered in communities across the country Thursday for the second annual National Day of Action to draw attention to problems facing aboriginal people." To read the rest of this article go to, http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/05/29/aboriginal-action.html 12) ARTICLE: LOVELACE GRANTED FREEDOM; FORMER CHIEF SAYS HE WON'T BACK DOWN IN FIGHT TO PRESERVE LAND By Frank
Armstrong "Bob Lovelace stepped out of Toronto's hallowed Osgoode Hall courthouse a free man yesterday after 3 1/2 months in a provincial jail. "I am feeling really good," a smiling Lovelace told a ring of journalists on the courthouse steps." To read the rest of this article go to, http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1048746&auth=Frank+Armstrong 13) ARTICLE: PROTESTERS SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN JAILED; CRITICS By Tobi
Cohen "The jailing of seven aboriginal protesters involved in a dispute with a pair of mining companies in Ontario could have been avoided, opposition critics said yesterday as First Nations groups across the country mounted their second annual Day of Action aimed at drawing attention to everything from land claims to poverty." To read the rest of this article go to, http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1051247&auth=Tobi+Cohen 14) ARTICLE: FIRST NATIONS VS. MINING ACT The Star
Editorial "Where it should be seen as an opportunity with significant benefits for all concerned, it is a contentious and highly divisive issue, pitting First Nations in Ontario against those who could give them a stronger foothold in the mainstream economy, with its wealth and jobs." To read the rest of this article go to, http://www.thestar.com/article/431246 15) ARTICLE: RECONCILIATIONS IS DIFFICULT AFTER A REMARK THAT HURTS By Christine
Blatchford May 30, 2008 "The Ontario Crown prosecutor who urged a judge to impose "a financial penalty that hurts" on the so-called KI-6 native protesters has been seconded as senior counsel to the fledgling Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission." Once again you must pay to view this article by Christine Blatchford. Go to, 16) CCAMU ARCHIVED PRESS RELEASE: FREE AT LAST: ROBERT LOVELACE & KI SIX SET FREE! To the elation of over a hundred jubilant supporters and after over three months behind bars, Robert Lovelace & the KI 6 walked free from the Court of Appeal on Wednesday, May 27th at Osgoode Hall, in Toronto. Extensive media were present inside and outside of court to report on the event. The sentences for the seven protesters, all guilty of non-violent protests to protect their respective homelands, were reduced to "time served." As well, the fines were "stayed" and, as with the former decision, no reasons were given. The panel of three judges presiding over the appeal requested our patience, stating that because the case was very complicated, their reasons would be released at a later date. An officer guarding Robert asked the judges, "Does this mean that Robert is free to leave from the courtroom?" One of the judges confirmed that, "Yes " he was free to go. The guard and Robert threw their arms around each other, as the guard congratulated him. The packed courtroom had, by then, erupted into cheers of joy. When asked by a reporter if he had any comment, Mr. Smitheman, lawyer for Frontenac Ventures, said, "Ahhhhh, NO" and walked from the courtroom. As with the first court session in Kingston, the courtroom was changed due to the public's demand to witness the proceedings. "One of the numerous questions that the judges raised throughout the day was, "What had been the precedent for such lengthy jail terms and heavy fines?" said Donna Dillman of the Community Coalition Against Mining Uranium. "The judges were informed that other protestors had been sentenced to a week or two, and that this sentence and these fines were, themselves, precedent setting." At the outset, Smitheman reported that he would be arguing the appeal against the AAFN, but not against KI. While the lawyer for Ontario defended their position during the previous court cases, they chose not to argue the appeal. The celebration continued at Queen's Park where, on Monday, tents and teepees had been set up for an ongoing protest. Hundreds of supporters joined in the festivities. A second
round of contempt of court charges will be heard in Kingston on June 2nd
against the Shabot Obaajiwan and Ardoch Algonquin. The more recent charges
against 6 non-natives were dropped as of Monday, May 26th. |