Ontario EA Process Being Monitored by UN Commission on Human Rights
Algonquin Nation Secretariat Press Release
28 October 2002 (Toronto, Canada) –
The permitting process for the controversial Bennett toxic waste incinerator has come under the scrutiny of the UN High Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. The UN has agreed to monitor the case on behalf of 11 First Nations and Tribal Councils from across Northern Ontario and Northern Quebec. At issue is whether First Nation rights are being undermined by the Ontario EA process.
Madame Fatma Zohra Ouhachi-Vesely, special Rapporteur for the High Commission on Human Rights and Toxic Waste, was in Canada meeting with First Nation people affected by the Bennett incinerator proposal. She says the UN High Commission will be monitoring the Ontario EA to see if the process constitutes an abuse of human rights – in particular, the universal human right to full public participation in the permitting process.
Grand Chief Carol McBride of the Algonquin Nation explains the First Nation's position.
“Our people have consistently reminded the Ontario government of its fiduciary and legal obligations to ensure that our traditional lands will not be impacted by the Bennett incinerator. Unfortunately, the present EA process seems unable to provide our people with this assurance. First nations are being victimized by a predatory approvals policy which is making it possible for poor communities to be targetted as an internal Third World dumping grund for national and international waste.”
The Ontario government has been widely attacked for stripping the EA process of public hearings, independent peer reviews and intervenor funding. The First Nations are particularly concerned that their legal rights to be fully consulted over infringements on lands subject to treaty or unextinguished Aboriginal title have not been respected.
As Grand Chief McBride explains, “Our people have lost too much over the last 200 years. We cannot afford to lose any more. The threat posed by burning PCBs and dioxins is very clear to our traditional way of life. We are asking the United Nations to consider Ontario’s present EA process as a predatory abuse of our most basic rights as First Nation people.”
The following First Nations have promised to protect the land from the Bennett incinerator: Mattagami, Matachewan, Wahgoshig, Beaverhouse, Abitibiwinni, Timiskaming, Brunswick House, the Chapleau Ojibwe and Temagami First Nations, along with the tribal councils of Wabun, the Teme Augama Anishnabai and the Algonquin Nation Secretariat.
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