R. Martin Bayer, one of De Beers’ outside lawyers, says the company had to take some unusual factors into account during its discussions with the Attawapiskat and other Aboriginal groups near the mine site. For example, Bayer had to make sure that meetings didn’t take place during the communities’ traditional activities, such as the annual spring goose hunt.
“The point I wanted to make to our company officials is that when that happens, the community members will just stop everything they are doing to go on the land and hunt, because they rely on the geese for food and clothing,” says Bayer. An attorney with the law firm of Weaver, Simmons in Sudbury, Ontario, Bayer himself was raised in an Aboriginal community, the M’Chigeeng First Nation. His background gives him the ability “to understand the unique aspirations and expectations of our own people,” he says.
