RAN Accuses America’s Largest Lumber Company of Human Rights Abuses

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http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/0417-05.htm

RAN Accuses America’s Largest Lumber Company of Human Rights Abuses


SAN FRANCISCO – Rainforest Action Network accused Weyerhaeuser Corp. of human rights abuses today after the company refused to support viable alternatives to sourcing wood from massive clear-cut logging operations within the ancestral homeland of the Grassy Narrows First Nation, a Native community in northwestern Ontario. The allegation comes just two days before Weyerhaeuser’s annual shareholder meeting in Federal Way, Wash.

In addition, an Amnesty International research team began a 4-day fact-finding mission in the traditional territory of the Grassy Narrows First Nation yesterday to document the impact of logging and other industrial development on the community’s rights and culture. The goal of the mission is to shed light on the plight of the community and convince all parties to respect the call by Grassy Narrows’ leaders for a moratorium on all industrial development on their land without prior consent.

"The purpose of this mission is to see first-hand how the course of industrial development in their traditional territories has impacted the enjoyment of human rights at Grassy Narrows," wrote Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, in an open letter to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. "The Government of Ontario is failing the people of Grassy Narrows. Decisions with a profound impact on the community’s use of the land have been made with little or no meaningful consultation, much less consent. Clear demonstrations of community opposition to provincial decisions have been ignored."

A research team of four people, including Neve, will meet with community members to discuss the impacts of government decisions on health, culture and livelihood. The other team members include Celeste McKay, a Metis researcher from Manitoba; Sheena Graham, an Aboriginal woman from western Australia and community organizer with Amnesty International Australia; and Craig Benjamin, Amnesty Canada’s campaigner for the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

“Abitibi and Weyerhaeuser continue to rely on outdated cut-and-run practices that have devastated rural communities for decades,” said Brant Olson, director of Rainforest Action Network’s Old Growth Campaign. “The presence of Amnesty International in Grassy Narrows is a wakeup call to North Americans who think that human rights abuses on the homefront are a thing of the past.”

The people of Grassy Narrows depend on the land for hunting, fishing and other cultural activities, all of which have suffered due to rampant clear-cut logging on their land. Weyerhaeuser’s Kenora iLevel Timberstrand mill is the top consumer of wood from Grassy Narrows territory. The wood is used to produce homebuilding materials used throughout the U.S. by Weyerhaeuser’s homebuilding subsidiaries, including Quadrant Homes, Pardee Homes, Marquee Homebuilders and Winchester Homes. Years of opposition to the logging have been ignored by both the Canadian government and companies like Weyerhaeuser that continue to profit from logging on Grassy Narrows’ ancestral land.

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