MESSAGE TO ABITIBI CONSOLIDATED INC.
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February 5, 2004
Abitibi & Abitibi Loggers:

You are hereby advised that you have until 5:30 p.m.
Friday,  February 5, 2004 to cease all logging
activities and vacate the Anishnabe Lake
area and the whole Grassy Narrows Traditional
Territory.  

Failure to comply will result in your workers and your
equipment in being blocked in the area.

Signed:
X
Signatory Indians to Treaty #3 1873

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ASUBPEESCHOSEEWAGONG - Urgent Action : Stop the
Clear-Cutting of Traplines at Anishinabe Lake
February 5, 2004

Logging contractors working for Abitibi-Consolidated
Inc. have recently begun clear-cutting timber near
Anishnabe Lake, 60 km north of Asubpeeschoseewagong
(Grassy Narrows ON). This week, Grassy Narrows trapper
Alex Fobister reported to his community that the
loggers had destroyed most of the access trail he had
cut on his trapline, and the pine marten traps he had set along
the trail were all gone. In response, on Feb. 4, 2004,
the community erected a blockade on the Deer Lake Road
leading to Anishnabe Lake and are stopping all logging
trucks from entering the area.

The community asks that CPT supporters contact the
government leaders listed below to call for an end to
clear-cut logging on Grassy Narrows' traditional
territories.

Background

Abitibi-Consolidate Inc. holds a Sustainable Forest
Licence from the Province of Ontario for a large area
of forest north of Kenora in northwestern Ontario.
This area includes the 6,500 sq km traditional land
use area of Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishnabek
(Grassy Narrows First Nation). Grassy Narrows is a
party to Treaty #3 with
Canada which promised that they would retain access to
their traditional hunting and fishing grounds. However
clear-cut logging, such as that done by Abitibi, and
encouraged by Ontario, is destroying the animal
habitat needed by Grassy Narrows people to sustain
their community, and therefore violates the treaty.
After years of frustration in meetings with government
officials and court cases, Grassy Narrows took direct
action in December 2002 by
blockading Jones Road, the main logging road leading
into their traditional territory. That blockade
remains in place. They have also, on occasion,
blockaded other logging roads on their territory.

Alex Fobister is a 60-year-old full-time trapper from
Grassy who has always sustained himself from the
forest. His great-grandfather, grandfather, and father
had always trapped in the same area that he
does near Anishnabe Lake. He holds a licence for this
trapline from the same Ontario government department
that licences Abitibi's logging on that land. Earlier
this year, he hand cut a new trail in
part of the remaining mature forest on his trapline,
and placed boxes for trapping the fur-bearing pine
marten. When he returned to inspect
his trapline in late January 2004, he found that a
logging contractor working for Abitibi had clear-cut
most of the mature forest on his trail and that all
his marten boxes were missing. He, and the
community, are extremely upset, as he had understood
that there would be no logging of the forest that
remained on his trapline.

In November 2003, Abitibi finally entered a dialogue
with the community about the blockades and the
concerns behind it. The company tabled a one-page
"Proposal for Partnership," and the community has been
preparing its response. Abitibi's destruction of yet
another trapline is seen by the community as
negotiating in bad faith and a
poor basis for establishing a partnership.
Urgent Action

Both the federal and Ontario provincial governments
are new. Both have promised a new way of doing things.
The federal government is responsible for upholding
Treaty #3 and its guarantee that Grassy
Narrows people will be able to hunt and fish on their
territories. The Ontario government is responsible for
forestry practices and
licences, and is also obliged to respect treaty
rights, all of which are protected in sec. 35 of
Canada's constitution, which is the highest law in
Canada.

Please contact the new Canadian government leaders
listed below, making the following points. Telephone
calls, personal written letters, and faxes are
generally more effective than e-mail.

- congratulate these leaders on their new positions
and their promises of a new way of doing things;
- let them know that the treaty rights of Grassy
Narrows people are being violated by the logging
activities of Abitibi-Consolidated operating under
licence from Ontario;
- inform them that yet another trapline has just been
destroyed by Abitibi's contractors;
- ask that they intervene to stop the treaty
violations and destruction of Grassy Narrows' means of
livelihood caused by this clear-cut logging.

Addresses

Rt. Hon. Paul Martin
Prime Minister of Canada
House of Commons
Ottawa ON  K1A 0A6
tel 613-992-4284
fax 613-992-4291
email pm@pm.gc.ca

Hon. Andy Mitchell
Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs
House of Commons
Ottawa ON K1A 0A6
tel 613-996-3434
fax 613-991-2147
email Mitchell.A@parl.gc.ca

Hon. Dalton McGuinty
Premier of Ontario
R. 281, Main Legislative Building
Queen's Park
Toronto ON  M7A 1A4
tel 416-325-1941
fax 416-325-7578
email dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

Please send a copy of any written messages to Grassy
Narrows at fobister@voyageur.ca and to CPT
Asubpeeschoseewagong at cptgn@kmts.ca. For Canadian
residents, also send a copy to your own Member of
Parliament, and Member of Provincial Parliament
(Ontario residents).