| Background: The Mi’kmaq-led protest at Hunters Mt. Sep 4, 2025: – Clear cutting has gone too far in Hunters Mountain: activists CBC News Video. “On Thursday, a group of Mi’kmaw activists in Cape Breton stopped trucks from taking wood from the area. Anna Rak has the story.” – Mi’kmaq block Hunters Mountain in protest of forestry’s impact on moose By Aaron Beswick for Saltwire “A Mi’kmaq-led protest is blocking access for forestry companies to Hunters Mountain in Cape Breton. Organizer Ashton Bernard told The Chronicle Herald on Thursday it is to force the provincial government to meet with the Mi’kmaq about joint management. The protest comes as rumours circulate that there once again will not be a moose hunt for Mi’kmaq or non-aboriginal hunters.“This is not about wanting to hunt moose, we know they are in danger and we can’t do that,” said Bernard.“This is about them raping the land and destroying the habitat…Elder Albert Marshall said that harvesting softwood trees and replanting spruce and fir was limiting biodiversity and hurting species such as moose. “They’ve exhausted the carrying capacity of the land with their rate of extraction,” said Marshall, who is from Eskasoni. “Clearcutting is a dangerous process. They say they are doing reforestation when they replant but when they’re just planting conifers they are changing the genetics of the forest and ultimately that has an effect on the biodiversity of the area…“We are supposed to be co-managers of these lands, waters and resources, yet decisions continue to be made that are impacting our position and our rights,” said Chief Tamara Young, co-lead of environment, energy and mines for the assembly, in a written statement. “Our concerns are often overlooked and dismissed, and it is clear that community members are frustrated with the position that puts us in as a nation.” The Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs is supporting the protest. COMMENT: I am told that Hunter Mountain is the main road that is the access for all of the CB highlands that Port Hawkesbury Paper is on. From the article: “The Cape Breton Highlands, along with other Crown land throughout Cape Breton and in Antigonish and Guysborough counties, is managed by Port Hawkesbury Paper. Under the forest utilization and licensing agreement renewed in 2023, the province pays the company $5 million annually to manage the land. The renewed agreement, which runs until 2043, allows Port Hawkesbury Paper to harvest 275,000 “green” tonnes annually off some 520,000 hectares. The original agreement, signed in 2012 by Darrell Dexter’s NDP government, allowed the mill to harvest 400,000 tonnes annually.” |
I had the privilege this weekend to visit the Mi’Kmaw Land Defenders on Hunters Mountain in Unama’ki.
Rene Doucet Cottreau on Friends of Goldsmith Lake FB page, Sep 14, 2025
I had the privilege this weekend to visit the Mi’Kmaw Land Defenders on Hunters Mountain in Unama’ki. The experience was quite incredible and unlike anything I’ve had in protest camps before.
The scale of their movement is striking. There couldn’t have been less than 40 of us in attendance last night. Elders sat around the stoves chatting in Miꞌkmawiꞌsimk while children played in the edge of the woods and people milled about doing various tasks. Community is the only word to describe it. All coming together in defense of their land.
As I arrived, a number of people had just come down from the backwoods of the mountain. Many of them visibly emotional from the scale of the destruction they’d witnessed. As they had left, two moose and a bear had run alongside the trucks to escape the devastated areas. There was no shortage of photographic evidence of the lush forests that had been turned into lifeless mudpits.
Still the overall mood was hopeful. The world is taking notice and the wheels of destruction have been stalled on the mountain for now. Everyone I talked to said, with conviction, that they will stay as long as it takes.
The most incredible moment for me came after dark. Sitting at the edge of the light. Listening to the drummers and the singers and the storytellers. Watching their shadows dance on the margins.
What’s happening on Hunters Mountain is more than a protest. It’s a movement and a people reclaiming what was taken from them by imperialism and colonization.
Please help them fight the good fight however you can.
Sep 12, 2025
SOOF takes donations and supplies to the Hunters Mountain Mi’kmaw protest
Nina Newington on Friends of Goldsmith Lake FB page
Today the Assembly of Mi’kmaw Chiefs announced that Port Hawksbury Paper ‘has suspended all current forest management activities on the Cape Breton Highlands.’ The Hunters Mountain Mi’kmaw action has been remarkably effective so far. Logging equipment has left the mountain, without the piles of logs the transporters were carrying. These were offloaded at the head of the logging road where the camp was established less than a week ago.
A couple of us went up on Tuesday with supplies and donations from SOOF. It was a powerful experience to be there. The first night was quite chaotic — it is incredibly hard to sort information from rumour when you are camped out on a logging road — but on Wednesday morning a local Chief delivered the news that the RCMP had told him they were not going to try to remove the camp.
Instead of barricades we built drying racks for the medicines the women were gathering. Then elders arrived along with Chief Andrea Paul from Pictou Landing. Cheryl Maloney was already there. 48 people gathered by the new drying racks and the piles of logs to listen and pray. Marian Nicholas brought us together with the drum.
Chief Andrea Paul highlighted how solidly Mi’kmaw the gathering was – to my eye there were only three of us settlers — and also that it was unusual to see more men than women at such an event. Everyone was happy to see so many young people involved.
Elder Ernest Johnson had many wise words for the gathering but, for some reason, this stuck with me: ‘You are a part of the Earth. You think you are top dog. But you aren’t.’
It’s not complicated. It just requires a complete transformation of the story settler society tells itself and everyone within reach.
Relatives not resources.
It was a privilege to be there at camp. My personal favourite thing was puttering about in the cook tent, listening to conversations going on in Mi’kmaw all around. Big thanks to all the people who donated gear and cash and treats on very short notice. It was fun to be able to deliver things that were instantly useful — cash, the new 2 burner stove — and beautiful — your bowls, Deb Kuzyk, your images, Lorne Julien.
It was astonishing on Wednesday to watch the flood of supplies arrive from various reserves, including from PEI. When word went out that the camp needed firewood, it arrived in short order. While many people at camp were from Unamaki, other had traveled long distances to be there and gas isn’t cheap. The action to protect Hunters Mountain clearly enjoys strong support. Don’t be shy to go and lend yours. And if you can’t go in person, you can always send an e-transfer to Alexina2468@gmail.com.
Wela’lioq to the land defenders.