A-Infos (en) Canada, Ontario, Anarchist journal, Linchpin #3 - Free indigenous uranium mining activist Robert Lovelace!

FEBRUARY , 2008- Robert Lovelace, former chief of the Ardoch Lake Algonquin 
First Nation, has begun a six month jail sentence for his role in peacefully 
resisting uranium exploration near Sharbot Lake this passed fall. He and his 
community will also have to pay $35,000 in fines. Frontenac Ventures, A uranium 
exploration company has claimed 30,000 acres of land in eastern Ontario around 
the headwaters of the Mississippi system, which feeds the Ottawa River. ---- 
Uranium mining poses a serious threat to the integrity of the region's ecology, 
as well as the health of inhabitants. It also compromises the sovereignty of the 
Algonquin first nations, threatening to poison their traditional territory, all 
of which legally belongs to them, and is officially un- ceded to the Canadian 
government. Uranium is an extremely dangerous radioactive element and its 
extraction from the earth requires violent destruction: surface stripping, clear 
cutting, and blasting are all common practices of the process. The residents of 
the Ottawa valley, from both native and settler populations, have been resisting 
this unwanted exploitation and are standing in the way of Frontenac Ventures, 
the Ontario Government, and all those who wish to destroy and exploit the earth 
for profits.

Grandfather William Commanda and Honorary Chief Harold Perry, respected 
Algonquin elders, have called for a halt to uranium mining, and many thus 
interpret resistance to mining as a necessity under Algonquin law.

"I am in a dilemma. I want to obey Canadian law but Algonquin law instructs me 
that I must preserve Creation. I must follow Algonquin law", declared Lovelace 
before being taken away in handcuffs. Resistance has been a constant since 
Frontenac Ventures first began exploration. A drilling site was blockaded by a 
coalition of Ardoch Algonquins, Shabot Obaadjiwan Algonquins, and settler groups 
for 101 days, and other protests have been numerous. "It is now time to take 
direct action again to secure the area so that no further encroachment occurs on 
our ancestral homeland", said Lovelace a few weeks before his trial.

Activists, from both native and settler groups are demanding a complete 
moratorium on uranium mining in Ontario. The Community Coalition Against Uranium 
Mining (CCAMU) is the main settler group working against Frontenace Ventures and 
there destructive enterprise.

Words Free Will
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