#HoldingTheLine Trappers in Saskatchewan have been trying to protect their way of life for the past 6 ½ years against resource company expansion into their traditional trapline areas. They are licensed trappers with a legal right to hunt and trap in those areas, but legally this is counted only as ‘surface rights’ while the companies have been given ‘mineral rights’ which the Federal and Provincial governments consider more important. The rush of resource company development has been accompanied by a ‘let it burn’ policy on forest fires, since forest fires only damage the ‘timber resources’, or ‘the forest’ as we call it, and this doesn’t effect the resources underground. The fires have destroyed cabins and annihilated much of the wildlife in the region, which is also making it very difficult for trappers in the region to continue making a living. The problem escalated in November 2014, when Trappers near LaLoche started seeing helicopters following them out to their traplines, and then began finding access roads to their traplines blocked by locked gates. The responded on November 19, 2014 by blockading the main highway 8 km north of LaLoche. The ‘checkpoint’ barricade allowed people who lived in the region to go back and forth, but blocked mining and oil company employees and equipment. Cenovus Energy got an injunction and the RCMP aggressively stepped in and removed the barricade. Since then, the trappers have camped by the side of the road, occasionally obstructing the companies without a full barricade, and have appealed for help from people across the country.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 20:46:21 +0000
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