The president of the Sámi parliament, Mr. Pekka Aikio, mentioned in his opening speech that the Sámi reindeer herding based on free grazing is an example of structural discrimination caused by law when compared to for example agriculture. The municipal manager of Inari, Mr. Reijo Timperi, emphasized in his greeting the amount of money and work that the municipality uses to promote services in the three Sámi languages. It remained unclear what this had to do with discrimination.

The legal secretary of the Sámi parliament, Mr. Heikki J. Hyvärinen, pointed out in his long presentation also those sides which are not so perfect in the municipality of Inari - such as threats to Sámi people if they don’t stop using their lawful means of juridical protection or their support groups.

”In case there is an economical conflict of interests between the Sámi and the main population the municipality may take sides powerfully and always in favor of the main population. (...) In the dispute concerning logging in Inari the central authorities have had the habit of taking the side of the loggings – that means the state and the loggers – against Sámi reindeer herding”, Hyvärinen said.

He talked thoroughly about the position of the Sámi people in land use. As an example he mentioned the activities of Metsähallitus taking place on state owned land and weakening the possibilities for excercising Sámi culture. The new law on state forest use that took effect in the beginning of this year obliges the state enterprise to adapt its business so that practicing Sámi culture is secured in the Sámi area. there is not yet any recognizable signs of reducing the activities. Hyvärinen also brought up the UN human rights committee recommendation telling Finland to solve the dispute over land use rights in Sámi area. Before a solution is reached the committee requests Finland to refrain from all activities that could possibly affect the solution beforehand.

The critique by Hyvärinen was aimed sharply at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. According to Hyvärinen the ministry totally denies the position of the Sámi as indigenous people. The ministry does not consider the constitutional principle of justice to effect itself in matters connected to the Sámi . Public authorities should however always function according to the law.

Interesting comments were also brought up by a representative of the central organization for Finnish Sámi, Maria Sofia Aikio. She used the fate of Greenpeace in local media as an example of how the Sámi issue and opinions are being censored. According to Aikio Greenpeace as a big and powerful organization should be able to bear the criticism – if it can’t handle it, then that’s a problem only for Greenpeace. The big problem in the issue is that even though the Sámi are offering their own opinions to the press to be published when issues important to the Sámi are discussed, for some reason the local and regional newspapers only publish letters written by a single Sámi person that pleases the editors. They seem not to have been pleased by Greenpeace working together with Sámi reindeer herders, but the media has been misinterpreting the sayings and writings of both parties.