CAIA Statement of Solidarity with Ardoch Algonquin First Nation

Stop Frontenac Ventures Corp. (FVC) uranium mining now!
Free Political Prisoner Bob Lovelace!
Reverse all Court Decisions Relating to AAFN co-Chief Paula Sherman!

February 20, 2008 - As a grassroots Palestine-solidarity organization committed to the rights of indigenous peoples worldwide, the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) unreservedly condemns the recent decision by judge Douglas Cunningham to sentence AAFN spokesperson Robert Lovelace and AAFN co-chief Paula Sherman to six-month terms in jail. CAIA further condemns the onerous $25,000 and $15,000 fines respectively imposed on the two community activists and the additional $10,000 fine imposed on the AAFN community. CAIA notes that as an 'unrecognized' First Nations community, the AAFN receives no funding from government sources and that the imposition of such fines can only be read as an attempt by the courts to extinguish the financial viability of this community.

The highly politicized nature of these sentences further underscores the unjustified nature of the on-going criminalization of indigenous people's basic rights to self-determination and the free use of their lands and resources. Just as Israel refuses to fulfill its obligations under international law with respect to the basic rights of the Palestinian people (including the incarceration of over 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners), the Canadian government has decisively rejected its obligations under the 'UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples' and continues to incarcerate indigenous leaders who defend the basic rights of their peoples to self-determination. Such a right includes the right of indigenous peoples to: "freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development" (Article 3, UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples).

Furthermore, CAIA strongly denounces Frontenac Ventures Corp. (FVC) rapacious attitude in this matter and its expropriation (without negotiations) of 30,000 acres of AAFN and Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation (SOFN) lands for the purposes of what it describes as an "aggressive exploration and development program" designed to exploit regional uranium deposits. CAIA notes that FVC's land-grab is being made on the basis of the Ontario's outdated Mining Act, which was established in the late-19th century (at the height of settler-colonial expansionism on Turtle Island). As community leaders continue to argue, the provisions of the Mining Act directly violate repeated findings of the Supreme Court of Canada with respect to First Nations treaty-rights and land-claims in similar instances. Furthermore, as the FVC itself admits, the corporation's operations "enclose a large area of very high radioactivity" meaning that FVC is knowingly engaging in a process that risks exposing local populations to the documented dangers of uranium mining.

It is for these reasons that CAIA calls for the immediate reversal of the politically motivated sentences imposed on community leaders Bob Lovelace and Paula Sherman. CAIA is particularly concerned with the repeated failure of Ontario's provincial-Liberal and Canada's federal-Conservative governments to seriously deal with land-claims in this province.

We call on all friends and allies to offer financial support to the on-going struggle of the AAFN to reclaim their lands and resist FVC's destructive behavior targeting Turtle Island. The AAFN is asking supporters to please send donations, made out to: "Chris Reid, in trust for the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation" at the address below:

Christopher M. Reid
Barrister & Solicitor
154 Monarch Park Ave.
Toronto, ON M4J 4R6
Tel: (416) 466-9928
Fax: (416) 466-1852

To The Community Coalition Against Mining Uranium (CCAMU), whose mandate is raising public awareness on the uranium issuing and achieving a moratorium. Please make cheques out to: "Uranium Mining Moratorium Fund" and mail to:
83 Cockburn St.
Perth, ON
K7H 2B7

For more information click HERE and HERE