Etched on a poster board the size of her body, Mary McPherson held up a pencil-drawn portrait of Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
With dollar signs over his eyes, Ford is standing in front of a burned-down forest, holding a torn copy of the James Bay Treaty.
The artwork, McPherson said, is in response to Bill 5, controversial legislation which aims to fast-track development in the name of unleashing the province’s economic potential.
“I’m really angry and scared for the future. I feel like already, this territory has experienced a lot of environmental harm as a result of resource extraction,” said McPherson, a member of Couchiching First Nation.
“I’m concerned about the lack of consultation and most importantly, the lack of consent from Indigenous communities before going forth with projects like the Ring of Fire.”
The legislation will see the creation of special economic zones, which will allow exemptions for certain municipal and provincial laws when it comes to projects of economic importance — namely mining.
The provincial government says it plans to consult with First Nations over the summer to help inform Bill 5’s regulations and the special economic zones, including the mineral-rich Ring of Fire in the James Bay lowlands.
Over the past several weeks, dozens of First Nation leaders and conservation groups have been speaking out against the bill, arguing it tramples on Treaty rights and weakens environmental protections.
On Thursday, McPherson joined about 200 people outside Thunder Bay—Atikokan MPP Kevin Holland’s office, calling for Bill 5 to be repealed.
“Really take into strong consideration UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) — and I’m not just talking about Section 35 and duty to consult and accommodate, which I personally [feel] is not enough,” McPherson said.
“I’m talking about serious engagement with Indigenous peoples as equal partners and taking seriously their consent.”
Indigenous people rally at Queen’s Park, call for withdrawal of Bill 5
Hundreds of First Nations members from northern Ontario rallied outside Queen’s Park last week before the bill was passed, after Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa, a member of Kingfisher Lake First Nation, was asked to leave the legislature for saying “the premier is telling untruths to First Nations.”
Joyce Hunter, a member of Weenusk First Nation and one of the organizers of Thursday’s rally, told the crowd she knocked on Holland’s office door, but he wasn’t there.
She said his staff refused to come outside and speak with participants or pass along their message to the MPP, and shut the door on her.
“This is not something that [only] the First Nations are talking about. Everybody is talking about this, and we want to be heard,” Hunter said.
“To have that door slammed like that, it was really a very inappropriate way to respond to people who elected Kevin Holland.”
Later on, attendees of the rally slid their signs beneath the office door.
“Bill 5 is about unlocking nation-building projects that will bring economic opportunity, critical infrastructure, and good-paying union jobs to communities across northwestern [Ontario] and the province for generations,” says a statement from Holland’s office emailed to CBC News.
“We are maintaining high environmental standards, labour laws, and duty to consult. Any assertion otherwise is false.”
The statement also says projects streamlined through Bill 5 “are of common interest for First Nations.”
“They support legacy infrastructure and will unleash additional economic opportunity by bringing road construction, hydro hookups, health care, schooling, jobs, and other services back to their community,” it says.
Two of the region’s First Nations that have been working with the province on building roads to the Ring of Fire have also spoken out against the new legislation.
Since 2002, Grassy Narrows First Nation has upheld a blockade against clear-cut logging and mining in its territory. The Treaty 3 community has a long legacy of environmental activism, particularly since the Dryden Paper Mill dumped about nine tonnes of mercury into the English-Wabigoon River System in the 1960s and 70s.
To this day, about 90 per cent of its community members experience symptoms of mercury poisoning, including Chrissy Isaacs.
“For Grassy Narrows, we’re always gonna protect that land because we live with a lifelong sentence” of environmental harms, Isaacs said.
Her concern is that Bill 5 “opens the gates” to hundreds of mining claims that Grassy Narrows has fought against for years.
“I feel like if there’s enough pressure, the bill can be killed, and it has to,” she said. “They have to consult with us, they have to talk to us when it comes to big decisions like that.”
Chris Moonias, former chief of Neskantaga First Nation, said his community voted Wednesday to demand the Ontario government repeal Bill 5.
The First Nation is also calling for the resignation of Kenora MPP Greg Rickford, the minister of Indigenous affairs and First Nations economic reconciliation and minister responsible for Ring of Fire economic and community partnerships.
“We will take action now. We will put people on the ground. We will come up to those rallies or if there’s any blockades happening in other communities, we will support them,” Moonias said.
