(Attawapiskat resident Rebecca Iahtail reacts after seeing injunction notice posted at ice road blockade. APTN/Photo)
By Jorge Barrera
APTN National News
ATTAWAPISKAT–A sheriff posted an injunction notice at the site of a week-long blockade on a diamond mine ice road a little over four hours after he was turned away from the Attawapiskat airport.
The sheriff appears to have flown to the airport at the De Beers Victor mine and from there drove the 90 kilometres to the blockade site, arriving sometime between 1 a.m. and 1:30 a.m. Sunday. The ice road from the mine does not cross through reserve land, though the area is Attawapiskat’s claimed traditional territory.
Accompanied by two OPP officers, the sheriff read the injunction to a handful of Attawapiskat residents who were still at the site.
He then stuck the notice, which was attached to a stick, in the snow outside a canvas tent pitched next to the blockade.
Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence appeared at the site shortly after the notice was posted and said she was glad no one was arrested.
Spence, along with Rebecca Iahtail, who has seen people rally around her decision to hold out on the blockade, then searched the community for the OPP officers.
At one point, they met up with a Nishnawbe-Aski police SUV and searched several streets.
Some people at the site expressed anger at the move and warned it could escalate the situation.
It was unclear, however, how the move would impact a planned meeting with De Beers later Sunday which was expected to bring an end to the blockade.
Just a few hours earlier, backed by a number of community members, Spence turned away the sheriff at the Attawapiskat airport. She handed a letter to the sheriff forbidding him from entering the community.
De Beers obtained the injunction from an Ontario judge on Friday.
After conferring with two OPP officers who awaited his arrival, the sheriff returned to his airplane and flew away.
Attawapiskat residents arrived in about a dozen vehicles to greet the sheriff. They waved goodbye as the sheriff left.
De Beers claims the blockade is threatening its operations for the rest of the year.
The mine ships up about 11 million litres of fuel up the winter road every year, along with machinery and parts too heavy to fly into the mine’s airport.
The mine also uses the winter road to truck-up hazardous substances like ammonia nitrate and truck out “hazardous waste material” that can’t be flown out of the mine.
@JorgeBarrera
Considering this road isnt on Attawapiskat reserve territory these people have some nerve acting as though they have any say in any of this. Its time the indians of this country be brought to heel and made part of our society instead of feeding into their delusions that they somehow hold power here. Start enforcing the laws of this land on all people equally…starting with removing the vagrants of this blockade
DeBeers employ 493 people. 47% is first nation, 97 of em are from Attawapiskat. If they succeed in there blockade and shut the mine down, there are gonna be 493 Families looking the same way as Iahtail is pictured here. Don’t they know they are affecting there brothers & sisters? I work for the Mine, I am also first nation, I count on this job to look after my family. If they succeed, I’ll be ashamed to call myself a First Nation.