Northern blockade pits trappers against industry

He called it a peaceful blockade to protect one of the North’s 80 fur blocks from industry, this one being fur block N19.

“They’re inside our Fur Block N19 without consulting the community of Ducharme Lake and northern Saskatchewan. Not one of them was consulted, all of these trappers… That’s our traditional land.”

According to Montgrand and Candyce Paul, who speaks on behalf of the group, the land and water has been degraded by industry activities. They cited decreasing animal populations as well.

“They don’t want any more toxic development,” Paul said.

She became involved with Montgrand’s group, called the Northern Trappers Alliance, https://www.facebook.com/groups/616057965183898/?fref=ts because of her own experience and views on uranium development and nuclear storage agreements in the Pinehouse area. Paul also works on behalf of the Community for Future Developments. HYPERLINK: https://committeeforfuturegenerations.wordpress.com/

Montgrand said he was involved in a similar blockade in 2001, and called it a peaceful demonstration that’s been discussed with the local RCMP.

“We talk to people that come up to the gate, the way we’re supposed to deal with them. If they disagree with it and start swearing at us then we don’t say anything, we step behind the gate.”

The group of at least 10 trappers has set up camp to keep warm, get fed, and man the roadblock “24/7, you don’t go home,” Montgrand said.

He said the roadblock could go until Christmas or beyond, “as long as the people want to be. I’m not alone…As long as we can be here.”

His goal for the blockade cannot be resolved through conversation with companies operating in that area.

“We want them just to leave this area alone, start paying these people back and compensating these people and leave these lands alone and everything alone. Because we didn’t allow them to go there,” Montgrand said.

Action not sanctioned by La Loche’s mayor

Both Montgrand and Paul are skeptical of the relationship between industry and La Loche’s mayor and council and the Clearwater River First Nation’s chief and council.

Mayor Georgina Jolibois denied any allegations of confidential agreements and deals with industry, saying “we do not have any agreements of any kind with any company.”

“I don’t know if there are still companies doing exploration, there were some companies doing exploration for uranium,” Jolibois said.

She said those companies have a “respectful relationship” with the community that isn’t ongoing but information sessions in the past were positive.

“They try to accommodate the trappers who came to them, who talked to them in the past. That is how I understand it to be,” Jolibois said.

She described her past interactions with Montgrand and Bobby Montgrand as “adversarial. They are very difficult people to get along with.”

As a woman who says she grew up on the trap line, learning how to fish and hunt from her grandparents, Jolibois questions the Montgrands’ identifying themselves as trappers.

“I don’t believe they have any support in the community.”

A Facebook group called “Holding the line – NORTHERN TRAPPERS ALLIANCE,” now has over 1,000 members and frequent activity.

claskowski@panow.com

On Twitter: @chelsealaskowsk

by Chelsea Laskowski

Northern blockade pits trappers against industry

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