Shawn Bell - Wawatay News

The fight over mineral exploration on traditional Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) lands is threatening to erupt into direct action. God’s Lake Resources said it will ignore an eviction notice issued by KI, but community leaders promise not to back down.
The junior mining exploration company was issued the eviction notice Sept. 29 after hunters from KI discovered an exploration camp on the north shore of Sherman Lake.

Michael Gravelle, Liberal MPP for Thunder Bay-Superior North, was re-elected for the fifth straight time in the fall 2011 election. Formerly the minister of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry, Gravelle was shifted to his new role as minister of Natural Resources in the new Liberal cabinet.
Gravelle sat down with Wawatay News to discuss politics, the new mining act and opportunities for First Nation involvement in future economic development.

Aboriginal leaders in Thunder Bay are criticizing the media’s role in creating a “climate of fear” underlined with racism in the city, following the high profile given to the latest death of a young Native man and recent media reports of Thunder Bay being the “murder capital” of Canada.
Leaders in the city are also cautioning the public against reacting with racism against the Aboriginal community in the city, noting that crime rates continue to fall and a number of programs are having success dealing with underlying social issues.

Plans for a massive chromite mine in northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire could be delayed up to a year and a half by Matawa First Nation’s judicial review of the project’s environmental assessment (EA), Matawa’s lawyer has warned.
Judith Rae, a lawyer with Toronto-based law firm Olthuis Kleer Townshend, was in Thunder Bay last week meeting with Matawa chiefs on the judicial review, which Matawa filed Nov. 7.

As the controversy over the environmental study of a proposed Ring of Fire mine drags on, another proposed mine in the Ring of Fire has started a similar environmental assessment process.
The environmental assessment for Noront Resources’ proposed Eagles Nest mine kicked off Nov. 15 with the opening of a 30-day public comment period.
The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) decided to do a comprehensive study, the same process chosen for Cliffs Natural Resources’ proposed chromite mine.