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KI Councillor Cecilia Beggs being led from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to a police van which will transport her to the jail centre where she will begin her six-month jail sentence. (Photo by Anna Baggio, CPAWS Wildlands League)
Today’s sentencing to six months in jail of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation Chief Donnie Morris and six other council members is the latest, but by no means the last, installment of an ongoing conflict fueled by government inaction between century-old mining legislation and legal entitlements.
The KI members were sentenced by Judge Patrick Smith at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Thunder Bay for contempt of court charges stemming from their protest against mining company Platinex Incorporated, which has been involved in platinum exploration activities on their traditional lands in the northern Ontario Boreal Forest. Robert Lovelace of the Ardoch Alqonquin First Nation recently began serving a six month jail sentence in southern Ontario for a similar case.
Tomorrow, Amnesty International plans to deliver a letter signed by over 30 organizations to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty requesting that the conflict created by the current “free entry” mining law be resolved.
Other jurisdictions – including Alberta – have modernized their mineral legislation to require exploration companies to seek permits which require government decisions before they are granted, instead of allowing them to acquire rights that government must then enforce.
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