Frontenac Ventures

TORONTO - With the Ontario legislature resuming sitting this week, over 30 groups and organizations are urging the government to overhaul its outdated mining laws and policies. In an Open Letter to the Premier, a wide range of social justice organizations, faith groups and environmental groups express their deep concern that the Mining Act in Ontario is taking precedence over human rights and ecological concerns.

Union of BC Indian Chiefs' (UBCIC) President, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, challenges the Ontario Government to honorably negotiate with the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation (AAFN) rather than use the courts to harshly punish and intimidate those protecting their territory.

Amnesty International news release:

Amnesty International expressed its concern today over the sentencing of Ardoch Algonquin First Nation negotiator Bob Lovelace to six months in jail and a fine of $25,000 for his role in a protest over uranium exploration on disputed land in eastern Ontario.

Shabot Obaajiwan Algonquin First Nation News Release: On February 12, 2008 the leadership of the Shabot Obaajiwan Algonquin First Nation appeared in a Kingston Ontario court to stand trial for their role in the ongoing struggle to stop a proposed 30,000-acre uranium mine on unceded Algonquin land just north of Sharbot Lake, Ontario. In keeping with the spirit of goodwill and peace in which the Shabot Obaajiwan having been conducting themselves throughout this conflict, Chief Doreen Davis and condoned War Chief Earl Badour Sr. have agreed to continue to abide by the terms of a court ordered injunction issued on September 27, 2007 with which they have complied since the blockade was dismantled on October 11, 2007. The Shabot leadership will ask their community to comply with this order and the “undertakings” negotiated by crown attorneys and Shabot defence lawyers until the case is reconvened for sentencing on March 17, 2008.