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Gold/Mining/Energy : Regal GOldfields (REGL -- Cdn over the counter) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brian Warner who wrote (337)	4/6/1998 8:47:00 AM
From: Brian Warner	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 370

herald.ns.ca Monday, April 6, 1998 The Halifax Herald Limited Mi'kmaq loggers cutting on barren By TERA CAMUS and JOCEYLN BETHUNE / Cape Breton Bureau Waycobah - Mi'kmaq loggers in Nova Scotia are succeeding where Regal Goldfields failed - to make money exploiting a designated protected area. Two Mi'kmaq loggers have felled about a half-hectare of old-growth forest on the Bornish Hills on River Denys Mountain in Inverness County, the Department of Natural Resources says. The Bornish Hills are on the province's list of 31 protected areas, but a New Brunswick court recently ruled a 1763 treaty gives natives first access to resources on Crown land. "It's happening in Bornish and it's happening on other Crown lands in the province. ... We have natives coming forward exercising what they call their native treaty rights," said Blaise Landry, area supervisor for Natural Resources in Baddeck. "We'll continue to monitor until we're given direction from government." That direction presumably will come from Natural Resources Minister Ken MacAskill. But for now, he's biding his time. "We want to make very sure that we have a case before we would move to charge, if in fact we would ever," the Victoria MLA said late last week. "We are in constant touch with the Department of Justice and we are just going to wait and see what action we will take, if any." The Jim Campbells Barren, another protected site on the Cape Breton Highlands, had been removed from the protected list by the provincial government. But its status was restored under pressure from environmentalists angered by Regal Goldfields' plan to mine a portion of the barren. Mr. MacAskill says the N.B. court decision has him approaching the matter cautiously. "It's the same as hunting. The same laws don't apply to white people as they do to natives and harvesting wood might be the same," he said. Joe B. Marshall of the Union of Nova Scotia Indians said the Mi'kmaq have the right to cut on the land. "Our position is that we have aboriginal title to all the land," he said. The treaty guarantees Mi'kmaq rights to public land and even private land ownership could be in question, he said. But he said there may be room for change if government negotiates an agreement, similar to the hunting guidelines set in 1986, for natives to stay clear of ecological reserves. An environmentalist says the old-growth forest, one of the few remaining in the province, is in jeopardy. "Why does it have our strongest legislation and it's not protected?" asked Colin Stewart of the World Wildlife Fund. But Waycobah Band Chief Morley Googoo said residents Chuck and Junior Bernard are simply exercising their rights. "They're out there trying to make a living and I'm certainly not going to interfere until such time that I need to get involved," he said. Neither of the loggers was available for comment. "They can do whatever they want within law and reason," Chief Googoo said, adding he doesn't want a confrontation to ensue between natives and government on this issue. "Only then will I get involved. ... Other than that, all the power to them." The Confederacy of Mainland Indians would not comment on the issue of cutting on ecological reserves.