Neskantanga First Nation is stepping up efforts to block Cliffs’ proposed transportation corridor to the Ring of Fire. Last week the Mattawa First Nation launched a two-pronged attack on the 340-kilometer, all weather access road that Cliffs wants to run south from the Ring of Fire to Nakina.
With its first move, Neskantaga applied to an obscure Ontario mining court to decide whether the First Nation has rights to the land over which the corridor would be built.
Then on June 13 lawyers for Neskantaga issued a letter to Ontario’s Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport Michael Chan, demanding that Ontario refrain from authorizing Cliffs to do archeological work on land the transportation corridor would be built on.
“The current road proposal encompasses areas used traditionally by Neskantaga members and ancestors, and in particular sites at which Neskantaga members are buried,” wrote Gregory McDade of Ratcliff and Company LLP in the letter to Chan. “If approved, the Cliffs Chromite Project and access road will irreversibly compromise Neskantaga territory and seriously and irreparably harm Neskantaga rights, title and interests.”
Neskantaga’s lawyers advised Chan that any application for a license to carry out fieldwork in Neskantaga territory will “trigger the Crown’s duty to consult.”
“On behalf of Neskantaga, we hereby insist that you refrain from issuing any license or other authorization for archaeological fieldwork in relation to the access road or the Cliffs Chromite Project until the Crown has engaged in meaningful consultation with our client,” McDade wrote.
The crux of the road conflict rests at the point Cliffs proposes to cross the Attawapiskat River. The mining company wants to build a 1000 foot-long bridge to cross the river, at a place where Neskantaga Chief Peter Moonias says that Neskantaga ancestors are buried.
Moonias has sworn to block a bridge from being built over the Attawapiskat River, with his life if need be.
“We are concerned (the bridge’s) construction and use could destroy life in, on and around the river,” Moonias wrote in an affidavit. “The access road would also open the entire Ring of Fire to industrial development.
“The impact of the access road on fish, game and plants will be extensive and profound,” the chief added. “In turn these impacts will significantly, if not permanently eliminate any ability of Neskantaga members to live off the land and harvest in this region.”
Neskantaga has also applied to Ontario’s Mining and Lands Commissioner to become a party in an upcoming court case over a land dispute between Cliffs and KWG Resources.
KWG Resources owns claims to the land along the route Cliffs wants to build the access road, and the two companies are preparing to go before the Mining and Lands Commissioner to determine how to resolve the dispute.
But Neskantaga argues it has rights to the land that supersede KWG’s claims, so it should be a party to the case as it comes before the commissioner.
Neskantaga will present its case to the commissioner on July 5 in Toronto.
In a letter to the office of the Mining and Lands Commissioner, Neskantaga’s lawyers argued that the First Nation’s involvement in the case is essential.
“Neskantaga will provide evidence and make submissions concerning the constitutional authority (or lack thereof) of the Commissioner to make any determination under section 51 of the Mining Act in the absence of the Crown fulfilling its duty of consultation,” wrote Matthew Kirchner of Ratcliff and Company LLP. “No other party…has raised or will raise Aboriginal concerns or the impact of constitutional duties on the Commissioner’s jurisdiction.”
Cliffs announced on May 9, 2012 that it plans to go ahead with the proposed $3.2 billion chromite mine in the Ring of Fire, along with the north-south access route and a processing plant in Sudbury.
The company has stated it expects to start production at the open-pit mine in 2015.