COURT RULES AGAINST INNU, INUIT ON VOISEY'S BAY INFRASTRUCTURE
Sheshatshiu - The Newfoundland Supreme Court ruled today against the Innu
and Inuit, who were seeking a decision to prevent the Voisey's Bay Nickel
Company from building a road and airstrip at the Voisey's Bay site this
summer. The Innu Nation and the Labrador Inuit Association sought to
protect the integrity of the environmental assessment process established
by Canada, Newfoundland, the Innu and Inuit to review the proposed Voisey's
Bay mining development.
Innu Nation president Katie Rich said, "It's hard to believe. We are
shocked by the court's decision. We are now reviewing our options to see
where we go from here. One thing is certain, though, and that is that the
Innu are not going to allow this project to proceed piece-meal, outside of
a single, comprehensive environmental review."
"We now call on the Minister of Environment to make a decision on the
infrastructure in the spirit of the Memorandum of Understanding that we
signed in good faith with Canada, Newfoundland and the Inuit. We expect the
federal and provincial signatories to respect their part of the bargain.
This means doing a complete environmental assessment before construction
starts, not allowing roads, airstrips and other project components to
proceed while the MOU environmental review process is just getting off the
ground.", continued Ms. Rich.
"In our view, the court's decision does not relieve the company of its
responsibilities-or release them from the committments that they have made
to the Innu and Inuit. Whatever the court has determined, the company can't
claim to be environmentally responsible when it is trying to detour around
the environmental review process established under the MOU. To proceed with
the infrastructure would do irreparable harm to the MOU process and to any
hopes of building a respectful relationship with the Innu."
The Environmental Assessment Panel established under the four-party MOU has
also questioned the company's decision to build infrastructure this summer.
Panel Chairperson, Lesley Griffiths, stated on June 16, 1997, that "If
approval were given to the Exploration Support Works, the Panel believes
that the credibility of the review process would be called into questiona
and that some communities or individuals would discontinue their
participation. This would obviously damage the Panel's Ability to carry
out an effective and timely review of the Undertaking."
"We are reviewing all of our options now. You can be sure that the Innu
will do whatever is necessary to protect our rights!", concluded Ms. Rich
- 30 -
Larry Innes Visit the Innu Nation WWW site:
Environmental Advisor http://www.web.net/~innu/
Innu Nation
P.O. Box 119, Sheshatshiu, Labrador, Canada A0P 1M0
phone: (709) 497-8398 email: innuenv@web.net fax: (709) 497-8396
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