Blockade set

By Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com

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With time on his side, Marten Falls First Nation Chief Eli Moonias says preventing planes from landing near the Ring of Fire development is his best leverage to force proper consultation to take place.

The blockade, the second such action taken by the band in the last year, is scheduled to begin on Thursday. Last year’s blockade lasted from January to March.

How long the planned blockade lasts this year is entirely up to the province and the companies’ willingness to cooperate, Moonias said, listing 10 issues he wants dealt with before the blockade will be removed.

On Jan. 25 Moonias sent a letter to Noront Resources Inc. officials, calling on the company to cease-and-desist all operations and leave the territory until true consultations can be held.

Noront has to date ignored the order and work has continued unabated, he said.

“If they continue that line after Thursday, then we’re not talking. If we’re not talking, then they’re not building anything there, a mine or whatever,” said Moonias, reached by satellite phone in Marten Falls on Tuesday afternoon.


“We’ll block it through the courts. The courts come after this and we’ll go to court if we have to. That’s what’s going to happen.”

Noront, in the midst of a 10,000-metre drill program at the McFauld’s Lake epicenter of the Ring of Fire, can only conduct its drilling during cold winter months. When the warm weather hits, wet ground conditions make it impossible to complete the work.


A lack of consultation has plagued the potential multi-billion dollar project since Day 1, he added, saying companies like Noront, Cliffs Natural Resources and KWG Resources Inc. have constantly ignored First Nation demands and come up with grandiose plans to develop the region, only informing Aboriginal leaders after the fact.

He pointed specifically to KWG and Cliffs, who have looked into the possibility of building a corridor from Marten Falls territory to Koper Lake, where a camp has been set up by a junior mining company.

“Did they talk to us about it? Nope. Did they come and see and say, ‘Hey, what about your access road system? Maybe we can work together.’ Did they talk to us like that? Nope. They just went ahead and did it on their own, did what they wanted to do,” Moonias said.

Included on Moonias’s list of demands are agreements on winter and all-weather roads and resolutions for what he termed is a disregard of Aboriginal and treaty rights; disregard of a letter of understanding signed between Webequie First Nation and the province and a plan to monitor the effect on local wildlife.

“There’s no environmental accommodation for a person we can employ that’s not embedded with the companies to oversee environmental concerns in the area. We asked for that last year,” he said.

Moonias also called the controversial Far North Act a smokescreen to continue the old “Mining Act regime.”

Finally Moonias is looking for reimbursement for the cost of last year’s blockade.

“That cost us $90,000 last year. And what it’s going to cost us this year, we need reimbursement for that. That’s not our fault we were going over there. That’s the fault of the government and the third-party industry for disregarding the constitution and treaty protections,” Moonias said. “That’s not our fault we’re accruing costs.”

According to Stockwatch.com, Noront has compensated Marten Falls with at least $16,320 and has a historical compensation agreement with Webequie First Nation. Noront is also paying Webequie $12,500 a month in consulting fees.

No deal is yet in place detailing what Noront will pay for the right to mine the two First Nations’ traditional territory, to which under federal law it owns the right to hunt, trap and live, but not the actual title.