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Secret negotiations decried by forest workers

About 30 members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada gathered at Bondar Place yesterday to protest possible changes in Canadian forest policy.
FredBond

About 30 members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada gathered at Bondar Place yesterday to protest possible changes in Canadian forest policy.

The forestry workers want public hearings into the current status of ongoing softwood lumber negotiations between Canada and the United States.

They say they've been shut out of the closed-door talks and that the federal, B.C. and Ontario governments are going along with a plan that would effectively privatize Canada's public forests.

"The existing deal ties access to timber to mills and jobs," the union says in a brochure distributed yesterday in the Sault, Kapuskasing and Thunder Bay,

"Their 'new deal' means no-strings attached access to the public forest."

Fred Bond (shown), national representative for the union, told SooToday.com that the proposed changes will create major problems for St. Marys Paper.

They will also be a significant setback to former Domtar hardwood mill, which re-opened this week as Boniferro Mill Works, Bond said.

"[Jim Boniferro]'s going to have a very tough time complying with the changes."

SooToday photo coverage

Demonstrating at Bondar Place Tony Martin and Peter Denley

(Editor's Note: The photograph at the top of this page, and the group shot of the demonstrators, were taken by Hilary Connell, a co-op education student from Sir James Dunn Collegiate and Vocational Institute currently on placement at SooToday.com.)


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David Helwig

About the Author: David Helwig

David Helwig's journalism career spans seven decades beginning in the 1960s. His work has been recognized with national and international awards.
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