The Marten Falls Ring of Fire blockade has been called off.
“It closed Friday (March 11),” said Marten Falls Chief Eli Moonias. “We didn’t get any support from the communities. Nobody showed up there.”
Moonias said the blasting and the advanced stage of development are now beginning on the Ring of Fire.
“This rock (being blasted out of the Ring of Fire) is going to tell them if they are going to go ahead with the mine,” Moonias said.
Moonias said his community is focused on long-term issues to achieve a good deal for the future.
“We don’t just want to be shovellers of snow or burners of excrement,” Moonias said. “We want our people to work in the mines, to be miners, operators of big machines that you’re going to need there for the open-pit mine, truckers, operators, drivers, cooks, camp maintenance.”
“I’m in the long run here — what I want is for (our) people to have real work, good jobs they are proud to have.”
When I was a boy growing up in my home community of Attawapiskat on the James Bay coast, I was deathly afraid of looking at the full moon.
When I was a boy growing up in my home community of Attawapiskat on the James Bay coast, I was deathly afraid of looking at the full moon.
I grew up...
I’m happy to see the ongoing support and assistance in our northern remote communities to help our people cope with so many lifelong and generational issues...