The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor Idle No More protesters again temporarily restricted access to the Lalor mine Tuesday, renewing demands for a share of the massive mineral project. Several sources confirmed the protesters were from the Pukatawagan-based Mathias Colomb Cree Nation (MCCN), the same First Nation that organized a Jan. 28 blockade near Lalor. 'A protest did occur (Tuesday) afternoon for a few hours at our Lalor mine site,' said John Vincic, vice-president of investor relations and corporate communications for Hudbay. 'Our first priority is always to ensure the safety of our employees and everyone else at our sites. When the protest ended, regular access in and out of the Lalor site was restored.' Cpl. Miles Hiebert, a Manitoba spokesperson for the RCMP, said police 'were made aware of the protest, and report it concluded without incident.' He said the protest went from about 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. There were no clear estimates available as to how many protesters were involved. Vincic said the blockade did not impact operations at Lalor, where development work and early-stage mining is underway. He reiterated that Hudbay's 'key priority in these instances is to ensure the safety of our employees and people near our site.' There are no plans to halt work at Lalor, located near Snow Lake. Vincic said Hudbay's position on Lalor and the company's relationship with MCCN remains unchanged from the Jan. 28 blockade. See 'Projects...' on pg. 3 Continued from pg. 1 'Mining projects are governed under applicable laws and government regulations and our approvals to date have been granted in this context,' he said. 'Hudbay has been in ongoing dialogue with MCCN for more than two years, including sharing of environmental information and information about educational and commercial opportunities available in the mining industry. 'We believe in the well-established, constructive relationship we have with the MCCN and we are confident that relationship will continue to support discussions of mutual interest.' Neither Chief Arlen Dumas of MCCN nor another representative from the band could be reached for comment. At the Jan. 28 blockade, Chief Dumas said his people 'deserve our share of resources' because under no treaty did they 'relinquish our sovereignty' or 'cede our title to the minerals.' 'We agreed that we would share and we would collaborate and work together with our partners, and so that's what we're going to do today,' he added. At the same blockade, Chief Dumas served Hudbay with what he called a 'stop work order' to Hudbay, saying Lalor requires the approval of the band since it is on aboriginal land. The one-page order ends with a 'warning': 'The failure to stop work, the resumption of work without permission from the...Mathias Colomb Cree Nation is punishable by the laws of Mathias Colomb Cree Nation.' The order does not specify what those 'laws' are, but from the standpoint of both Hudbay and the Manitoba government, Lalor is not breaking any rules on the books. As of press time Wednesday, there had been no Idle No More protests at Hudbay's Flin Flon properties, though one recently rumoured blockade never materialized. Idle No More is a global protest movement that seeks, among other things, to increase equality for aboriginal people and protect their traditional lands.
