Some items of interest for inquiring minds.
The situation at Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation in Ontario (formerly known as Big Trout Lake) is causing quite a stir.
You may have read about it: six members of the First Nation, including the Chief and Deputy Chief, were sentenced to six months in jail for trying to prevent mining exploration company Platinex from drilling in their traditional territory.
Reaction from First Nations and supporters has been particularly strong, including a general backlash against mining in the region. Even the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada calls the situation “sad and disappointing,” and is urging an “amicable, mutually beneficial negotiated resolution.”
The Assembly of First Nations agrees.
There’s a very good Globe and Mail op-ed assessing the situation, but unfortunately it’s behind a subscriber wall. Suffice to say that the question in the title of the article – “Are the KI Six outlaws or prisoners of conscience?” - is not answered explicitly, but the implicit answer is: prisoners of conscience. The only drawback to this analysis is that it neglects to mention that the federal government has the primary responsibility to ensure there is proper, adequate consultation and has a central role as a broker in these processes.
Another interesting news story deals with Ontario Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant decrying the lack of investment by the federal government in First Nations. The federal government responds by saying it’s not just about more money, it’s about better spending.
You know what? They’re both right. Clearly more investment is needed because too many First Nation communities simply aren’t safe – there’s dangerous drinking water, unsafe and over-crowded housing, collapsing schools, inadequate funding for health needs and on and on. We need to move quickly to deal with this situation and it will involve equality of funding for First Nations. But yes, we also need to bring some sense to broken system and bureaucracy plagued by duplication, overlap and over-reporting that is not focused on whether or not quality and appropriately funded programs, services and initiatives are actually reaching and benefiting our communities.
Because while the KI story rightfully continues to be a focus of media coverage, tragic stories like this – which touch at the same core issues of Treaty rights, obligations and responsibilities - wrongfully tend to disappear from the front pages all too quickly.
If all levels of government – and all Canadians – understand this reality, we can indeed work towards amicable, mutually beneficial solutions.
About the AFN
- AFN Blogger
- The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) is the national representative organization of the First Nations in Canada.
4 comments:
The Desecration of a Treaty
Hello, my name is Thomas Williams (Musko) of Treaty 9, I was appalled when I read the article from the Globe and Mail dated March 20, 2008, concerning the wrongful imprisonment Chief Donny Morris and five other band council members of Kitchenuhenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation sit in Jail. They were sentenced on Monday to six months in prison by Mr. Justice Patrick Smith of the Ontario Superior Court in Thunder Bay.
" KI First Nation leaders signed Treaty 9 in 1929 to protect their ability to feed themselves in their homeland (600 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay) by hunting, fishing and trapping, and to prevent the encroachment of early miners and loggers. The native community saw the treaty as a peaceful way to share the land with newcomers, while remaining connected the land's sustenance and sacredness.
But in the winter of 2005-06, Platinex, a mining-exploration company, tried to drill on the land for which it had staked a claim pursuant to Ontario's mining laws but which land is also is subject to Treaty 9. KI First nation members protested on the site, preventing the drilling from proceeding. The company sued for damages and sought an injunction to prevent further protests.
It was the KI First Nation, however, that received an interim injunction based on the irreparable harm it would suffer if drilling went ahead as Platinex had planned. The injunction was granted on condition the that parties negotiate toward an agreement that would allow Platinex to drill. Ontario joined as intervenor, talks between the three parties followed, but no agreement could be reached.
The court lifted the injunction last May and imposed an agreement, proposed by Platinex and Ontario. KI First nation members were ordered to allow Platinex onto their land to drill. When they did not do this, they were found in contempt of court.
In other words, when the people of the KI First Nation asserted their treaty rights - to secure sustenance from the land, to live on the land in accordance with their Spiritual beliefs and to share the land, as equals, with the newcomers
- their leaders were jailed.
How did it come to this?
Three laws converge in this place.
The first, since time immemorial and the one that is sacred to the people of KI, is to follow the duty given to them by the Creator to protect the land for future generations. According to this law, the people of KI did not have to follow the court order. In all conscience, they could not allow Platinex to drill.
Exploratory drilling - and its accompanying noise, campsite, drill pad, machinery, fuel drums, helicopters and trucks - poses an unacceptable risk of damaging the Big Trout Lake area, a place of reliable hunting and fishing sites, trap lines, regular berry harvesting and burials of still-remembered family members.
The second law, Treaty 9, was a covenant made between equals to share the land, allowing both peoples to live peacefully together. According this law (and the Supreme Court has affirmed that governments must consult with and accommodate First Nations before doing anything that may infringe Treaty rights), it is the Ontario government and Platinex that have to do things differently. Jailing the KI leadership will not lead Ontario to properly consult with and accommodate the community's concerns - it may do the opposite.
The third law is Ontario's Mining Act, with its outdated free-entry staking system. The contradiction between the Mining Act and KI's Treaty rights is key to understanding why the native leaders are in jail.
The act allows anyone to stake a claim anywhere on Crown land and, as soon as it is filed with the government is valid. The act does not mention that all Crown land in Ontario is govern by Treaties with First Nations people. It doesn't even include the minimal first step of requiring companies or the ministry to communicate with First Nations about exploration. The system makes money for Ontario and, especially for mining companies."
First Nations should not allow the desecration of a Treaty, the Treaty not to be stomped on, pushed aside, walked all over like it is meaningless.
An out-dated and meaningless Act to should not have to power to over ride the Treaty with the non-aboriginal gov'ts.
If this is allowed, to go on, then other Treaties, other major agreements and unseeded territories are in jeopardy.
Thomas, Williams
Musko
LOAD-DATE: March 20, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: IIIustration
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newpaper The mid section with ( " - ")
Copyright 2008 The Globe and Mail, a division of CTV globemedia Publishing Inc.
AII Rights Reserved
Obviously Premier Dalton McGuinty speaks with a forked tongue (a snake in disguise, remember the story of Nanabozho). Dalton says that he will bring in a new era of change, and then sets up some Ministry to show his constituents (some political brownie points) that he is doing just that. Then with the other hand, the Premier jails these KI chiefs and KEEPS THEM IN JAIL over mining and land rights. Is the government and mining industry so greedy that they will steal someone else's land and remove the residents?
Time for action. Sing and Dance to the Drum in Ceremony...
Keep fighting to preserve KI land. The KI Nation must unite with all other Anishinabe or Anishinini First Nations located far from white settlements in northern Ontario and northeastern Manitoba, in order to stop the whites from developing your land. That area between Lake Winnipeg, northeastern Manitoba, to James Bay is still Anishinabe land. You must unite in your struggle to defend your land. I realize the whites want to develope your land and that is very troubling. The whites do not want to imprison Anishinabe leaders because it will lead to bad blood spilling over. What is occurring now can lead to violence and if the Anishinabek have to, they must do as their ancestors did. What is at stake is a huge land area of around 200,000 sq. mi. or more, and the Anishinabe or Anishinini, know they are about the only people living in that huge land area. We will be hearing more about unrest like what the leaders of the KI Nation endurred, because of that huge land area. There is greed in place and the Anishinabe must defend themselves from those who are snakes who devour over greed.
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