Posted By Sue Yanagisawa
Kingston Whig Standard
Sept. 25, 2007
The courtroom was packed yesterday as a prospecting company's latest bid for a court order to remove protesters so it can explore for uranium north of Sharbot Lake began in Kingston's Superior Court of Justice.
The second-floor courtroom at the Frontenac County Court House was crammed with more than 100 spectators, many of whom were wearing bright-yellow T-shirts that identified them as supporters of the Community Coalition Against Mining Uranium (CAMU), a group centred in the Sharbot Lake area that's pushing for a provincewide moratorium on uranium mining.
The coalition has collected 2,500 signatures on its petition and claims the support of the riding's Liberal, NDP and Green party provincial candidates. There were also representatives of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nations and Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nations, who have been leading efforts since June 28 to keep Frontenac Ventures Corp. from drilling.
Exploration company Frontenac Ventures have filed, in a separate proceeding that has yet to be scheduled, civil contempt charges against the Algonquins and some of their supporters over their continued blockade of the prospecting site after the company secured an interim injunction ordering them off on Aug. 31. Protesters have been at the entrance to the property, about 12.5 kilometres north of Highway 7 off Highway 509, since June 28.
Both groups of Algonquins have said they will not participate in the current hearing in front of Justice Douglas Cunningham.
In their stead, lawyers Owen Young, representing Ontario's attorney general, and Alan Pratt, for the Algonquins of Ontario, have entered the dispute as intervenors. They're asking the court to step back and let the issues be resolved through consultation and negotiation. Algonquins living in the Ardoch area maintain that they hold unceded rights to much of the land Frontenac Ventures wants to explore. They also say that the provincial government should not have allowed the company to stake claims there without notifying or consulting them. They and many of their neighbours, including CAMU members and supporters, fear exploration and eventual mining activities will contaminate the local water table.
Frontenac Ventures' lawyer, Neal Smitheman, told Cunningham their fears have no foundation and that consultation is a "red herring." Ardoch Algonquin First Nations, Smitheman argued, is on record as being unwilling to consult on uranium exploration.
"They might be willing to consult with respect to other mineral exploration," he told the judge, "but they will not consult on uranium exploration."
He also argued that the intervenors, in suggesting outcomes to the court, were exceeding their role in the process.
Pratt held that the Algonquins of Ontario, by virtue of their ongoing land-claim discussions with the provincial and federal governments, have a direct interest in the lands as well as this case. Pratt's client, the Algonquins of Ontario - which represents 16 Algonquin groups, two of which are from the Ardoch area - have land claims over 3.6 million hectares of Ontario, including the lands now in dispute between Ardoch Algonquins and Frontenac Ventures. He added that consultation with his group should not be a "substitute for consultation with Ardoch Algonquin First Nation," which chose not to participate in the larger land-claim discussions. Smitheman told the court that "Frontenac is entitled to drill," and its request for an order to remove protesters is "the only legal action that is before this court properly."
He argued that the only "irreparable harm" that could result from granting the injunction "is they will be forced to obey the law."
It isn't that simple, countered Pratt.
"It may not be that [Frontenac Ventures] have a right to drill, subject only to the obstacle of removing some people who are protesting this activity," he told the judge.
"The rights of [the company] to drill are under a cloud," he added, because of the province's failure to consult with the First Nations.