Ontario needs to treat First Nations as partners: Free entry mining is dead

Free entry mining is dead

Submitted by admin on Thu, 2008-01-24 15:38

In February 2006, junior mining company Platinex Inc., began drilling on its mining claims on the Nemegusabins Lake, an arm of Big Trout Lake, 650 kms northwest of Thunder Bay. The land was staked in the 1960s and 1970s and Platinex later purchased these claims. Under the Ontario Mining Act, anyone can stake a claim anywhere on Crown land, and as soon as it is filed with the government, it is valid.

But Nemeigusabins Lake is 40 km across Big Trout Lake from the community of Kitchenuhmayoosib Inninuwug First Nation (KI) – it is part of their traditional lands, a place of reliable hunting and fishing sites, traplines, regular berry harvesting and burials of still-remembered family members. The water is clean. The land is quiet.

In 1929 the people of KI signed Treaty 9 to protect their ability to feed themselves by hunting, fishing and trapping, and prevent harassment by government officials and the encroachment of early miners and loggers. The KI community saw the treaty as a peaceful way to share the land with newcomers, while remaining connected to the land’s sustenance and sacredness.

The Mining Act, however, does not mention that all Crown land in Ontario is covered by treaties with First Nations people. Its staking provisions exemplify, not sharing, but secrecy, greed, and an understanding of land as simply a source of profit.

When Platinex began their drill operation, without consulting the KI community, the people visited their campsite and protested. Platinex left, and shortly filed suit for $10 billion against the impoverished community.

Nearly two years and five judicial decisions later, another hearing is scheduled for January 25, 2008. Justice Patrick Smith of the Ontario Superior Court will decide whether to sentence KI community members who defied the court’s November 2, 2007 order to allow Platinex to drill.

The KI First Nation has suggested, in a letter to Michael Bryant, that all exploration be stopped while a joint panel of representatives from the KI and Ardoch Algonquin First Nations, and Ontario’s new Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs and Premier’s Office, investigate mining exploration issues, and recommend ways to prevent future conflicts, including reform of the Mining Act.

The joint panel is a good idea. Its practical work will be difficult, but not impossible. Several models, such as the mining exploration rules under the Labrador Inuit Land Claims Agreement and the review process under the MacKenzie Valley Environmental Review Board exist, and may be helpful.

The challenge will be for the Ontario government to participate with an open mind. Ontario has a long history of ignoring First Nations’ treaty and aboriginal rights. This can be seen in Ipperwash and Caledonia, where First Nations groups tried for decades to have their claims heard by government, before taking their struggles to the land.

Ontario should enter its role on such a panel humbly, with full awareness of past errors and negligence. Ontario must understand that KI First Nation is not a ‘stakeholder’ in a new approach to mining exploration – like every First Nation in Ontario, it is, above all, a treaty partner. And recognition of treaty partnership is key to resource management in Ontario.

Mining companies, stock exchanges, shareholders and Ontario tax coffers have all benefited from the nearly 100-year-old free entry system enshrined in the Mining Act. Most First Nations’ communities in Ontario remain poor. Sharing the benefits of the land – all its benefits, not just the immediate rate of return – can only happen with real reconciliation between Aboriginal people and the Province of Ontario.

The people of KI have shown tenacity and determination, even a willingness to risk their liberty and be jailed, in protecting their land. Their connection to the land is central to their understanding of who they are, and they will not abandon it.

The first step in reconciliation will be Ontario’s willingness to accept this fundamental fact – and then, to work towards a new, respectful approach to mining exploration, envisioning a partnership of sharing among equals, in the true spirit of Treaty 9.

Rachel Ariss, S.J.D.
Associate Professor
Sociology
Lakehead University

http://www.wawataynews.ca/node/12537

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Summary of Court Day

1. Drilling to start as soon as possible.
2. Fines and/or a 6 to 9 month term in jail for the KI leadership. Ideally, keep the leadership in jail and paying escalating fines until they agree not to block the drilling.
3. That KI's challenge to the Mining Act be thrown out of court
4. That the KI statement of defense to the $10 Billion lawsuit be struck from the record.
5. That the court believe that the KI land claim is just a trick used to extort money from mining and other resource developers.
6. That the KI elders surrendered their lands in the Treaty negotiations in 1929.
7. That no fundraising by KI allies be allowed to pay for fines or other KI costs.

• Ontario wants KI to submit to the authority of Canadian law and ignore the Law of the Creator and their duty to the land.
   
• Ontario wants to contain the trouble at KI and make sure that it doesn't spread to all of Treaty No. 9.
   
• Ontario wants Platinex to say the mean things and do their dirty work in court so their lawyer, Owen Young, can look like a reasonable man in front of the judge.
   
• Ontario wants KI to accept that change for the First Peoples in Ontario will be made within the terms of white man's law as made by white lawyers and white judges in white court rooms in white cities.
   
• Ontario wants KI to accept that KI law is not law and that any KI jurisdiction over the land flows from the authority of Canadian law. Ontario is under the illusion that "crushing fines" will persuade KI leaders to accept drilling on their lands as the best KI can hope for under the Treaty and the consultation obligations created by courts under section 35 of the Canadian Constitution.
   
• Ontario wants KI to abandon the principles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples that give KI a veto over resource development on their lands.
   
• Ontario wants KI to accept that reconciliation means that First Nations never get the right to say no to Ontario and that Ontario unilaterally gets to make the rules of the game.
   
• Ontario believes that a court order and jail time could crush the spirit and aspirations of KI.
   
• Ontario believes that a privileged white man can speak for Martin Luther King and be taken seriously.

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