Grassy Narrows has been turned into a police state in the wake of a successful blockade of the Trans-Canada Highway that called international attention to the failure of the Canadian governments to halt the cultural genocide that is happening to Grassy Narrows people through the clear cutting of their treaty and traditional lands.

Over a dozen people have been detained or arrested and at least one person remains in custody.

People are asking for support - please circulate this message, ask for media to contact Grassy Narrows (Judy DaSilva 807-925-9941), come and video/photo document what is happening, etc.

More info will be forwarded when available but cell phone and computer access is very challenging from Grassy Narrows.


* Please forward widely *

The Ontario Provincial Police are amassing in force this moment at Grassy Narrows,
Ontario, likely in preparation to raid the three-year blockade against the clear-cut
annotation of forests within Grassy Narrows First Nation territory. Access to the
blockade is being blocked by police cars and many police vehicles and riot police are
present.

Yesterday, Grassy Narrows and indigenous people from other territories and environmental
activists staged a successful blockade of the Trans-Canada Highway from dawn until dusk. The people in the blockade were told that there would be NO ARRESTS if the blockade was dismantled voluntarily.




July 10-16, 2006


The crisis in Ontario's Boreal Forests is heating up. While much of the world is aware of the devastating destruction occurring in the Amazon rainforests, many don't realize the other important remaining intact forest ecosystem left on earth is the Canadian Boreal forest. Not only is this vast mosaic of forests, river, wetlands and lakes a breeding ground for billions of birds and home to the endangered woodland caribou, but it stores more carbon than any other terrestrial ecosystem, making it one of our first lines of defense against global warming, and provides more freshwater than any other place on earth. The various provincial governments in Canada have already allocated most of the Boreal's productive timber lands to logging companies and almost all logging is done through clearcuts - some as large as 20,000 acres. Logging and mining are moving further north threatening this vital forest ecosystem and the traditional territory of many First Nations in Ontario.