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| The Grassy Narrows First Nation (Anishnabe/Ojibway) live in the boreal forests of Ontario, near the Manitoba border. They have been struggling hard to stop Abitibi Consolidated - Canada's largest logging company - from clear-cutting the forests in their traditional territory. This is a classic "David versus Goliath" scenario. The Grassy Narrows people have been blockading Abitibi since December 3rd, 2002 at a place called Slant Lake: one of three major logging roads in the Grassy Narrows traditional land use area. Not a single logging truck has passed through the blockade since it began. In fact, trucks no longer even attempt to use the road anymore because they know that community members will be there to defend their land. All action taken by the community is peaceful with community members using their bodies rather than weapons to defend the land against the destruction caused by clear-cutting. The arrival of summer in 2003 after the wet spring has brought with it swarms of mosquitoes and the resumption of logging. The community has responded by implementing a new strategy they call 'roving blockades' where they change the blockade location at a moments notice in order to surprise the company at one of the other main logging roads. . There have been three roving blockades May and June 2003, which has significantly slowed down logging in these areas. In addition, using the roving blockades means Abitibi cannot be certain that on any given day, at any given time or in any given location they will be able to take trees from the Grassy Narrows traditional territory. From June 23rd to 29th, 2003, the community hosted its third annual youth environmental gathering, with visitors from all across Canada. Youth from the community have played an instrumental role in organizing the gathering and continue to be inspired and empowered to take action. The gathering ended in another "roving blockade." FAN's goal is to help stop the destruction of boreal forests by teaming up with First Nations, local communities and other environmental organisations. |
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