Blockade halts work at iron ore mine on Labrador-Quebec border

Innu community block access road to highlight environmental, employment concerns

CBC News, August 1, 2018

Workers at Tata Steel Minerals’ Schefferville mine, near the Labrador-Quebec border, have been sent home after a blockade was set up by members of a local First Nations community.

The blockade, set up Thursday night by the Innu community of Matimekush-Lac-John, is on the access road to the mine, which usually has about 400 workers but is now staffed by a skeleton crew of about 30, according to Armand MacKenzie, Tata Steel Minerals Canada’s Vice-President, Government and Stakeholders Relations.

Canadian court hands victory to First Nations in lawsuit against Rio Tinto

Iron Ore Co. of Canada’s port facility in Sept-Îles, Quebec. Photo: Mining.com.

Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.com, January 8, 2015

Two Quebec Innu communities whose traditional territory covers a large part of the province northeast and Labrador, have achieved a crucial legal victory in their battle for Cdn$900 million ($760 million) in compensation from Rio Tinto-owned Iron Ore Co. of Canada (IOC).

The win came as the Quebec Court of Appeal, which is the province’s highest court, said Wednesday it won’t hear an appeal of a September 2014 Quebec Superior Court judgment that rejected a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.