June 21, 2012 by Wawatay News

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Dance program changing lives in Treaty #3 PAGE 18 Vol. 39 No. 17

Sandy Lake cyclists on cross country tour reach Ontario PAGE 14

Housing needs spurring action PAGE 10-11

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June 21, 2012 Northern Ontario’s First Nation Voice since 1974

www.wawataynews.ca

Neskantaga aims to block Ring of Fire access road

Champion!

Shawn Bell Wawatay News

Photo submitted by The Ted Nolan Foundation

Jordan Nolan of Garden River, along with proud parents Ted and Sandra, hoists the Stanley Cup he won with the Los Angeles Kings on June 11. The community of Garden River was hanging on every shift during the game. Now Garden River is planning its own Stanley Cup parade for sometime this summer. See story on page 23.

Neskantanga First Nation is stepping up efforts to block Cliffs’ proposed transportation corridor to the Ring of Fire. The Matawa First Nation has launched a two-pronged attack on the 340-kilometer, all-weather access road that Cliffs wants to run south from the Ring of Fire to Nakina. With its first move, Neskantaga applied to an obscure Ontario mining court to decide whether the First Nation has rights to the land over which the corridor would be built. Then on June 13 lawyers for Neskantaga issued a letter to Ontario’s Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport Michael Chan, demanding that Ontario refrain from authorizing Cliffs to do archeological work on land the transportation corridor would be built on. “The current road proposal encompasses areas used traditionally by Neskantaga members and ancestors, and in particular sites at which Neskantaga members are buried,” wrote Gregory McDade of Ratcliff and Company LLP

in the letter to Chan. “If approved, the Cliffs Chromite Project and access road will irreversibly compromise Neskantaga territory and seriously and irreparably harm Neskantaga rights, title and interests.” Neskantaga’s lawyers advised Chan that any application for a license to carry out fieldwork in Neskantaga territory will “trigger the Crown’s duty to consult.” “On behalf of Neskantaga, we hereby insist that you refrain from issuing any license or other authorization for archaeological fieldwork in relation to the access road or the Cliffs Chromite Project until the Crown has engaged in meaningful consultation with our client,” McDade wrote. The crux of the road conflict rests at the point Cliffs proposes to cross the Attawapiskat River. The mining company wants to build a 1000-foot long bridge to cross the river, at a place where Neskantaga Chief Peter Moonias says that Neskantaga ancestors are buried. Moonias has sworn to block a bridge from being built over the Attawapiskat River, with his life if need be. See Neskantaga on page 6

                  

                   

    

    

                  see page 18

Red Lake Charity Golf Tournament Friday July 27th, 2012 at Red Lake Golf & Country Club

for more information, please contact Michael Pedri at: 807.475.9576 or mpedri@wgimail.com

1.877.492.7292 • www.wasaya.com