https://www.tbnewswatch.com/
NESKANTAGA FIRST NATION, Ont. – Leaders with Neskantaga First Nation are calling for a halt to an environmental assessment for a proposed road to the Ring of Fire in Northern Ontario, saying the community is already facing numerous emergencies and the communities voices are only being marginalized further.
Chief Wayne Moonias wrote a letter to various government officials and First Nations leaders saying the community’s decision-making is being undermined by the province during a pandemic.
“With the release of the announcement that the Northern Road Link environmental assessment process will be commencing, it is obvious that Ontario has ‘weaponized’ the environmental assessment process to further repress our Aboriginal and Treaty Rights. We are under duress,” Moonias writes.
Moonias said the pandemic has made the situation in Neskantaga even more precarious and it is facing a triple pandemic in the form of a health emergency, an ongoing water crisis, and now the environmental assessment for the prosed road to the Ring of Fire.
“We reject the claim that an environmental assessment of a mining road should be treated like an essential service during a pandemic,” Moonias writes.
For the rest of this article: https://www.tbnewswatch.com/local-news/neskantaga-first-nation-demands-a-halt-to-assessment-of-ring-of-fire-road-3766040