Follow Up With Bob Lovelace on the Blockade of a Proposed Uranium Mine

The continuing blockade of a proposed uranium mine near Sharbot Lake is an incredibly important struggle that is getting very little media coverage. Unfortunately that's the way it goes, and that's one of the reasons I do this show. I spoke with retired Ardoch Algonquin chief Bob Lovelace back on August 29 (our first interview is below this one), and here we speak again to learn how things have been progressing.

As it stands most of the leaders of the blockade have warrants out for their arrest and are facing a $77 million lawsuit. Despite this, they are absolutely firm in their stance that the mine will never go through and they will not leave their land. In conjunction with their continued presence at the site, a group of elders and others from their community have embarked on canoes up the ottawa river to ottawa, with the intent of gathering support and raising awareness about their struggle. In support of them, a growing number of communities and organizations are calling for a moratorium on uranium exploration and mining in their territory, and also, a growing number of people in the surrounding municipality are refusing to pay their taxes.

Bob talks about their interesting relationship with the OPP, and how they maintained a good relationship with them from the start, which helped them not get evicted when an injunction came down ordering their removal. Since then, however, the OPP was called to court to provide names of leaders and participants in the blockade, and despite their alleged best of intentions, they had to give names to the court to be named in a civil charges on behalf of Frontenac Ventures. Bob also talks about who Frontenac Ventures is and what their business is about.

As with last time, Bob is an excellent, thoughtful speaker, and I hope you can spread news of this around in your own circles.

Download 32:54 Recorded on September 26, 2007