Native group asks DiCaprio to help block Ontario diamond mine

Last Updated: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 | 5:48 PM ET

CBC Arts

A group representing aboriginal communities in northern Ontario is trying to enlist U.S. film star Leonardo DiCaprio in its fight against diamond mining in the boreal forest.

The Nishnawbe Aski Nation — a political organization that represents about 45,000 Cree and Ojibwa people in 49 communities — has written to DiCaprio, who stars in Blood Diamond, a recently released film about the diamond trade in war-torn Sierra Leone.

Leonardo DiCaprio is the star of the film Blood Diamond, about the diamond trade in war-torn Sierra Leone.
(Associated Press)

The organization's letter says a diamond mining project being constructed on the western shores of James Bay by the multinational giant De Beers could threaten Ontario's boreal forest and aboriginal ancestral lands.

Alvin Fiddler, deputy grand chief of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, said the letter asks DiCaprio to help publicize aboriginal concerns to a wider audience.

Fiddler said diamonds extracted from northern Ontario are similar to so-called "blood diamonds" from Africa because they take an ecological and social toll.

"The diamonds that will be mined here are not clean diamonds," said Fiddler. "They are not conflict-free diamonds. There are people who live in those territories, which happen to be us, and we do have rights."

"We just don't want a big hole in the ground when the jobs and the diamonds are gone. We have to be mindful of our responsibility to the future generation."

Fiddler said DiCaprio has not yet responded.

Linda Dorrington, spokesperson for De Beers, said the letter sent to DiCaprio is full of hyperbole, incorrect information and is an "unfortunate" way of getting attention.

The $1-billion mine currently under construction has undergone three years of "extremely thorough" environmental assessment and extensive consultation with aboriginal communities, Dorrington said. The mine is being built on swampland, and doesn't threaten the boreal forest, she added.

Blood Diamond, also starring Djimon Hounsou and Jennifer Connelly, opened in Canada on Dec. 8.