The Ontario government is considering changes to address what it calls “obstruction” to economic development projects, raising concerns from Neskantaga First Nation about its right to defend its homelands.
According to the province, “there are growing concerns regarding the safe and barrier/obstruction-free access to key infrastructure, such as businesses, highways, roadways and overpasses, as well as cultural/community sites like places of worship.”
“The province is considering legislative and non-legislative changes that could address obstruction to such infrastructure and provide enforcement tools,” says the Ontario Regulatory Registry.
The proposed changes come as the Ontario government seeks to accelerate development of mining in the Ring of Fire, a crescent-shaped mineral deposit in the James Bay lowlands, which Premier Doug Ford says could eventually create 70,000 jobs and add $22 billion to Ontario’s economy.
Neskantaga First Nation asked the government to withdraw its proposal on “facilitating barrier-free access to key” infrastructure following a public comment period open in October.
“After the announcement of $1 billion of federal funding for the Ring of Fire access roads last week, Premier Ford is sending an obvious message to Neskantaga and Attawapiskat [First Nations] that if we block their mining road, they will arrest us and send our people straight to jail,” Neskantaga First Nation wrote in a statement on Monday.
“Colonialism never changes. Decade on decade, we are hunted down merely for occupying what has always been ours.”
Construction has already begun on two roads — the Marten Falls Community Access Road and Webequie Supply Road — which are planned to eventually link the Ring of Fire to the provincial highway network.
Neskantaga First Nation — a remote Ojibwe community 436 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay — has strongly opposed these projects, prompting the community to partner with Attawapiskat to build a land defence encampment along the Attawapiskat River.
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“We have serious and documented concerns related to transport and load safety, impaired driving, and drug and human trafficking that will presumably increase as neither the governments of Canada and Ontario provide any investments to responsibly plan and prepare for the public safety and policing services required,” Neskantaga said in a news release Monday about road construction to the Ring of Fire.
“This proposal ‘seeking feedback’ demonstrates that the Province of Ontario is merely covering its bases before advancing into the Ring of Fire mineral deposits, under the guise of having the direction, consent and complicity of all Ontarians as to the parameters to be set for the use of force deemed ‘publicly acceptable.’”
Neskantaga outlined its concerns to Ontario’s Ministry of the Solicitor General and Ontario’s attorney general in a letter.
It also included the federal minister of justice and attorney general of Canada “in order to sound the alarm as to events that may unfold as Ontario proceeds with these aggressive resource access strategies that invite conflict.”
Premier Doug Ford and other provincial officials are seen with leadership from Marten Falls First Nation to mark the start of construction on the Marten Falls Community Access Road. (Greg Rickford/Facebook)
CBC News reached out to both the provincial and federal governments for comment and received emailed statements.
“In response to the rise of hate-related incidents across the province, we are exploring changes, as part of the action our government continues to take to protect the communities and the spaces that bring people together, to combat deliberate obstruction and intimidation on roadways or at places of worship,” wrote Saddam Khussain, senior issues adviser and press secretary with Ontario’s Ministry of the Solicitor General.
“Our government continues to work in true partnership with First Nations as we advance major, nation-building projects, including the Ring of Fire, that will transform our economy and create thousands of jobs.
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“We will review all feedback received from First Nations, stakeholders and members of the public through the Ontario Regulatory Registry consultation process.”
As for the federal government, Ian McLeod, senior media relations adviser with the Department of Justice Canada wrote “we are aware of [Neskantaga’s] letter and are reviewing to determine potential impacts.”
“Questions about the proposal itself should be directed to provincial authorities.”
The province’s regulatory proposal “is very vague,” according to Irina Ceric, an assistant professor of law at the University of Windsor.
“It’s not really clear why additional powers would even be necessary. Obstructing roadways, for example, is already something that’s covered by the Criminal Code, by provincial offences legislation,” Ceric said.
Irina Ceric is an assistant professor at the University of Windsor’s Faculty of Law. (Submitted by Irina Ceric)
“It seems very clear that this proposal, despite the lack of detail, raises really significant concerns of potential overpolicing, of government overreach, that it may impact protests, land defence that is covered by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms or other human rights guarantees.”
In Ceric’s view, it’s important to consider the proposal in the broader context of provincial and federal pushes to fast-track development.
“We have this overall context where legal avenues to object to development are being stripped away,” Ceric said.
“At the same time, the province is now stepping in with this proposal that seems to suggest that it needs to be easier for police and the Crown to criminalize land defence, water defence and other sorts of assertions of Indigenous sovereignty and Indigenous governance.”
Neskantaga’s letter to the provincial and federal governments references the Ipperwash Inquiry, which found that the Ontario Provincial Police, provincial and federal governments were responsible for the fatal shooting of unarmed Indigenous protester Dudley George in 1995.
Dudley George died in 1995 after he was shot by a sniper as he and other protesters tried to take back land near Sarnia, Ont., that was expropriated by the Canadian military. (CBC)
George was among members of the Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation who were peacefully occupying Ipperwash Provincial Park to reclaim their territory and protest the destruction of an ancestral burial ground.
To Ceric, the province’s proposal “takes us back to this moment in provincial politics where Indigenous rights assertions were met with deadly force.”
“We cannot allow this need to push projects forward in the — quote — ‘national interest’ to put the interests of corporations ahead of these really important rights,” she said.
