End Illegal Mining and Resource Extraction in Northern Ontario!
Thousands Rally at Queen's Park to Demand Ford Government Respect Indigenous Peoples' Jurisdiction
On September 27, some 6,000 --
mainly young -- people, including participants from Indigenous
communities in Northern Ontario participated in a three-hour
march and rally at Queen's Park to demand that the Ford
Progressive Conservative government stop the illegal mining and
other resource extraction activities on Indigenous lands which
do not have the peoples' consent.
The previous day, the Chiefs and representatives from Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows First Nation), Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (Big Trout), Muskrat Dam, Neskantaga and Wapekeka First Nations, who earlier in the year created the Land Defence Alliance as a united force to defend their interests, sought a one-on-one meeting with Premier Ford to get him to sign a declaration that no more mining and other activities will proceed in their territories without their consent. The Premier refused to meet with them.
Prior to the march, Chief Rudy
Turtle of the Grassy Narrows First Nation pointed out that both
the Ford government and the Trudeau government in Ottawa have
refused to listen to the demands of his community that illegal
mining claims and forestry in their territory be ended. He
pointed out that both levels of government have also refused to
take the measures necessary to decontaminate the
English-Wabigoon River of mercury and end the illness and
disease it has caused the community.[1]
Chief Turtle called on all the Indigenous Peoples and Canadians
to step up their support for his community so that they can get
justice.
Hundreds of people along the route of the march, from Grange Park to the legislature at Queen's Park, expressed their support for the action with some joining in.
At Queen's Park more speeches were given. One of the speakers was Cecilia Begg, a band counselor from Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, who thanked everyone for their support and noted that several youth from their community had travelled to Toronto for the action. She said that the next generation are taking up their social responsibility to defend the land and waters which the people had depended on for their being for thousands of years.
Chief Chris Moonias of Neskantaga
First Nation said that his community and other members of the
Land Defence Alliance will resist any further moves by the Ford
government to proceed with the Ring of Fire project without
their consent. He denounced the "corrupt" Ford government for
using "divide and conquer" tactics by promising to bring jobs
and prosperity to the Indigenous Peoples in the Ring of Fire
territory.
Chief Moonias pointed out that First Nations who have had mining
development in their territory remain impoverished, still have
no housing, no jobs and no prosperity. He noted that Neskantaga
First Nation has been under a 28-year boil water advisory, the
longest in Canada, and nothing has been done to fix this
problem. He said that his community is not averse to development
but not without their full participation in it, not without
their Free, Prior and Informed Consent.
Erin Riley-Oettl, a human rights lawyer with Amnesty International, told the rally that when Bill C-15 was passed in the summer of 2021 to adopt into Canadian law the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent was deliberately left out. It was replaced with "the right to be consulted," she said, pointing out that "Consulting is not consent. Consent is the right to say, 'No.'"
The participants ended the rally in high spirits, determined to stand together against the colonial high-handedness of the Ford government and demand that the rights of the Indigenous Peoples in Northern Ontario and across Turtle Island be respected.
This article was published in
Volume 53
Number 9 - October 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/MS53094.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca