Anti-Mining Protesters Freed

by Barry Weisleder

On May 28, just a day before the second annual Aboriginal Day of Action across the Canadian state, an Ontario Court of Appeal judge released native leader Bob Lovelace and six members of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI).

The appeals court reduced the sentence to the 100 days he had spent in jail and scrapped a $25,000 fine on Lovelace, 60, leader of Ardoch Algonquin First Nation and a professor at Queen's University.

On Feb. 15, Lovelace was sentenced to six months for protesting uranium mining on traditional Ardoch land. On March 17, six KI leaders were sentenced to six months after they violated an injunction, protesting against drilling for platinum on traditional land north of Thunder Bay, Ontario.

The Ontario Mining Act, enacted in 1873, is based on a free entry system. Anyone 18 or older can get a prospector's licence and stake mineral claims on any land in Ontario. Lovelace said the mining act has no provisions for aboriginal people and the government has to understand aboriginal people's concerns.

Asked if he would block the mining again, Lovelace said he would protect his land. "If you don't have the right to say, 'No', you have no right at all," he said. Right on.

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