CBC News
A group of Algonquin protesters arrived in Ottawa by canoe and kayak Friday, then portaged to Parliament Hill to demand a moratorium on uranium mining.
Protesters from the Ardoch and Shabot Obaadjiwan Algonquin First Nations have been blocking access since June to a site near Sharbot Lake, Ont., where an Ontario mining company wants to test drill for uranium. A court injunction has ordered the protesters arrested, but as of Friday, no arrests had been made.
Paula Sherman, co-chief of the Ardoch First Nation, was among the Algonquins who made the journey to Ottawa this week by canoe to deliver a call for a moratorium on uranium mining to Conservative MP Scott Reid, who represents their riding of Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington.
"Ontario issued mining claims … for Frontenac Venure on our lands, which are under comprehensive claim and weren't supposed to be being used at all. So we consider those claims invalid," said Sherman after the arrival of the canoes at Victoria Island following a six-day journey from Ardoch, about 113 kilometres southwest of Ottawa. "Uranium mining's not safe. Neither is exploration."
She said Frontenac Ventures has already built roads over sensitive wetlands and destroyed an aboriginal trapline, and the Algonquins fear the company will contaminate local waterways with its test drilling.
To underline that message, the Algonquins had carried in their canoes clean water collected from the headwaters of the Mississippi watershed. Those waters eventually flow north into the Ottawa River and south into Lake Ontario, Sherman said.
The protesters met with supporters, then marched with their canoes, aboriginal flags and drums up to Parliament Hill.
The Algonquins also plan to deliver a copy of their message to Ontario Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty's office.