Anishinawbe Blog

Bryn Weese
North Bay Nugget

As travellers in southern Ontario struggled with detours, barricaded roadways and cancelled trains, the First Nation day of action left some local residents with a full stomach and a better understanding of one another.
And that’s exactly the way Nipissing First Nation wanted it.
The Assembly of First Nations had called for a national day of protest Friday in and around First Nations across the country.
And although there were demonstrations elsewhere in Northern Ontario, Nipissing First Nation decided their interests would be best served by strengthening the community’s ties with its neighbours, said Perry McLeod-Shabogesic, a councillor with Nipissing First Nation.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better response from our neighbours and from our own community,” he said, noting the large crowd that filled the Nbisiing Secondary School Friday were aboriginals and non-aboriginals alike. “It makes me feel great because when you look at communities, they themselves are made up of smaller communities within them. And whenever you can have the larger community come together, it’s always a good thing.”
McLeod-Shabogesic said he and his council hope Nipissing First Nation will feel comfortable calling on neighbouring municipalities for support from time to time, “for instance, a letter of support or a resolution from our neighbours to add weight to our cause.”
But the feeling didn’t carry over across Ontario. Highway 401 was shut down for 11 hours and rail lines were closed to passengers and freight for even longer as a rogue Mohawk protester ignored calls for a peaceful day.
But at Nbisiing Friday, information booths, a presentation and various placards offered people a look at Nipissing First Nation’s unresolved issues, including the illegitimacy of land surrenders in the early part of the 20th century, as well as contaminated soils at former mining sites.
“In the past, we stood back and watched things go by. We complained a little bit, but we never really had an opportunity to present our point of view,” said Fred McLeod, who studies the Nipissing First Nation land disputes. “Part of today is to tell the people we exist and we’re very much a part of this country and our history is shared.”
Leo McArthur, president and CEO of Miller Paving Ltd., said Friday’s event was a success from his non-aboriginal point of view. Being in the paving business, he said, he works with a lot of First Nations and its nice to learn more about them and just to talk.
“It’s great,” he said. “It’s a real opportunity to meet members of the other communities, and vice versa.”

Tamara Cherry
Toronto Star

DESERONTO – Passenger and freight train service to Eastern Ontario was cancelled and police shut down a stretch of Highway 401 last night on the eve of today’s native day of protest.
Officers closed the 401 from Napanee to Belleville in both directions, an OPP officer from the command centre confirmed early this morning.
“It’s just to deny us the satisfaction,” Mohawk protest leader Shawn Brant said as news of the highway shutdown was relayed to him.
Canada’s premiers and aboriginal leaders appealed for calm earlier yesterday amid threats from Brant to block thousands of holiday weekend travellers on Highway 401, Highway 2 and the CN Rail line near Deseronto, about 60 kilometres west of Kingston.
VIA Rail took pre-emptive action by cancelling all train service on the Toronto-Montreal and Toronto-Ottawa corridors today. VIA will give refunds to passengers with tickets.
CN Rail spokesperson Mark Hallman told the Star early Friday that trains travelling between Toronto and Montreal have been halted until protestors have been removed from the tracks.
The move effectively shuts down CN’s busiest corridor on its system, accommodating an average of 25 freight trains and 22 VIA Rail trains daily.
Clad in green camouflage from head to toe, some with bandanas around their faces, Mohawks congregated at Highway 2 and Wymans Rd. between the main CN rail line and Highway 401.
Wooden planks set on fire were put across Highway 2.
On the CN line, protesters used booster cables on the tracks to trigger flashing lights that sent a signal to train stations to shut off service for the coming hours. Around 11:30 p.m., a bus was driven over the tracks to block any passage.
Police stood outside their cruisers armed with assault rifles on Deseronto Rd., just south of Highway 401, questioning people as they drove past and pointing flashlights in their cars.
“We promised a minimum of two targets and we’re looking at a third,” Brant said just moments before receiving word that police had shut part of the 401. “If we feel it’s appropriate, then we’ll take the action.”
Assembly of First Nations Chief Phil Fontaine said the goal of the National Day of Action was to educate, not harass, Canadians.
“We don’t want to cause a major disruption in the lives of Canadians. We don’t want to impede the Canadian economy but we want Canadians to pay attention to our issues,” he said yesterday, but conceded there is “frustration” among natives upset with living conditions that include boil water advisories, x rising high school dropout rates, unemployment and suicides.
“I know that Canadians are fair-minded. ….. If they knew that the underlying problem here is poverty, they would join with us and take on our cause,” he said.
“We’re asking all Canadians to walk with us.”
Canada’s premiers and territorial leaders, with the exception of British Columbia and Nunavut, issued a rare joint statement supporting the day as “an opportunity to strengthen public knowledge and understanding of First Nations culture, history, traditions and aspirations, and to rededicate ourselves to the work ahead in forging new and meaningful relationships.
“At the same time, we ask that leaders ensure that all actions are peaceful and law-abiding,” the statement said.
VIA warned customers that service between Montreal and Senneterre could be affected. Trains between Montreal and Halifax were expected to operate normally.
Passengers arriving in Montreal from Halifax with connections to Ontario will be bused to their final destinations.
Ontario Provincial Police commissioner Julian Fantino said there will be “quite a number” of officers around the province to deal with “whatever situation arises,” but commuters should be patient with the expected inconveniences.
However, he said, “There’s always a time where enough is enough.”
“We can’t allow the hijacking of that cause — that legitimate cause — by those who are intent on creating anarchy, or who are intent on creating lawlessness in our country,” Fantino said.
“We’ll talk to the extent that we can, but we’ll also deal with law-breaking for what it is,” he said.
“We don’t want to precipitate an escalation of events. We’re very mindful of what can happen. Our response will be measured and it will be thought out. It will be one that, I think, under the circumstances, we’ll have to justify. And we’ll be prepared to do that.”
Brant assured this day of action will last only 24 hours — a time he considers reasonable “given the grievances and the circumstances with which we live.”
While he hopes it will be a peaceful day, Brant said: “If there is police interventions, not only here but in other communities, most certainly we’re going to have the flexibility to deal with those things on the ground.”
Still, Fontaine sounded confident that today would pass without any violent showdowns.
“(Today), the real story will not be about conflict. ….. The real story here is that we have an unprecedented critical mass of support for justice and fairness for First Nations,” he said.
Demonstrations and marches are planned across the country.
In the nation’s capital, Fontaine will join a crowd of several thousand people in a march from Ottawa City Hall to Victoria Island, in the Ottawa River.
The marchers will gather on the island — traditional land of the Algonquin Nation of the Kitigan Zibi — to hear speakers, including Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion, NDP Leader Jack Layton and Buzz Hargrove, president of the Canadian Auto Workers union.
Fontaine is scheduled to meet privately with Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice later today but neither Prentice nor any and none of the other Conservative cabinet ministers have confirmed whether they will appear at any of the public events.
Grand Council Chief John Beaucage will be among native leaders visiting reserves around the province with hopes of educating people and gathering support from Ontarians and Canadians.
“We’re not looking to disrupt anybody’s day-to-day activities,” he said. “We need to get beyond these dependencies, we need to get beyond poverty and we’re looking for the new relationship to start building between Canada, Ontario and the First Nations so that we can start this process off in a good way.”
Beaucage and others plan to kick off “the era of action” at 9 a.m. in North Bay.
In Toronto, the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation have scheduled a march from Coronation Park to Little Norway Park at 10 a.m. to protest the slow progress made on their land claim.
“We’re not out to displace anyone from their homes.
“We’re just looking for fair compensation for a sale that we negotiated in good faith,” LaForme said.
Toronto students from around the city are also set to march from King’s College Circle to Queen’s Park for a “peaceful demonstration” demanding a better quality of life for First Nations from noon to 5 p.m., the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty said in a news release.

BRYN WEESE  /  The North Bay Nugget

The national Day of Action being organized by the Assembly of First Nations is playing out more like a day of education in Nipissing First Nation.
Perry McLeod-Shabogesic, a Nipissing First Nation councillor, said that while they support other forms of action being taken nationwide June 29 to lobby the various governments to resolve outstanding local, regional and national issues. But their current situation would be best served by educating not only the general public of North Bay, West Nipissing and elsewhere, but also themselves.
“When you look at Six Nations, they’re in a bit of a different pickle than we are. Their issues are probably a lot more closer to the surface, but for us, there’s a lot of things that have been brewing over a good 100 years or so that have been unresolved,” McLeod-Shabogesic said.
“We’re looking for support from our neighbours, rather than creating an environment of possible division and antagonism and all those elements that, of course, we want to avoid. We’re not looking for exclusion, we want inclusion.”
Among the issues Nipissing First Nation would like to have resolved are the Indian Land Management Fund rake-off, timber claims, CPR/hydro/natural gas right-of-ways, boundary issues, and cleaning up leftover radon at the Beaucage mine, among other things.
On June 29, between noon and 4 p.m. in the N’bisiing Education Centre, information booths about these issues and others will be set up. There will also be a fish fry, social time and talks by Union of Ontario Indians Grand Chief John Beaucage and Sam George, the brother of Dudley George, an unarmed protester shot by an Ontario Provincial Police sniper in the fall of 1995 during the Ipperwash Provincial Park land dispute.
McLeod-Shabogesic said Nipissing First Nation’s particular situation was, in part, because many of the stakeholders involved were unaware of the issues and their background.
“We felt that a lot of the reasons why our communities, and in particular Nipissing, have become frustrated is because our neighbours are not aware of the history behind a lot of these issues,” he said. “We decided that we wanted to come with more of an awareness and educational angle and maybe, that way, understanding and support would be easier to achieve.”
Leading up to the day of action, a Nipissing First Nation delegation will tour neighbouring councils and extend invitations. Also, neighbouring politicians are being asked to pass resolutions in support of Nipissing First Nation’s plight to resolve outstanding issues with provincial and federal governments.
The general public, too, is encouraged to attend the day of action at N’bisiing, McLeod-Shabogesic, because after all, the people are the ones who can make a difference, he said.
“The politicians are the instrument, but it’s the people that are the power. And we want to make sure we give them enough information so that when they’re forming their opinions, that they have at least a well-balanced perspective on it,” he said. “When they go to vote, hopefully our issues are included in theirs.”
The N’bisiing Education Centre is located at 469B Couchie Memorial Drive in Duchesnay.

Last of 1,100 students bid farewell to institution

BRYN WEESE�
North Bay Nugget
Amidst the mugginess and flapping of programs become makeshift fans inside the gymnasium at Canadore’s Education Centre Saturday, more than 100 students and three-fold the family supporters, bade farewell to the college they’ve called home for one, two, or three years.�
The last of five convocation ceremonies – four of which were held at the Education Centre – saw more than 1,000 students graduate in total, was held at the Canadore campus Saturday for graduates of the college’s Information Technology, Human Services, Office Administration and Indigenous Wellness and Addictions Prevention programs.�
John Beaucage, grand council chief of the Union of Ontario Indians, was, appropriately, Saturday’s speaker and honorary diploma recipient of the latter program.�
“I think it’s very important that our convocation speakers reflect our student population and have a message that is inspiring to our student population,” said Barbara Taylor, president of Canadore, noting she was thrilled Beaucage took the time to go to Canadore Saturday.�
“Over 10 per cent of the student population at Canadore College, across all program areas, is represented by aboriginal people. We have partnerships with the Union of Ontario Indians and many First Nations, and so (asking Beaucage to speak) was simply reflective of who we are at Canadore College.”�
Beaucage, while most of his speech focused on the student’s future, did touch on the Ipperwash report released last week and the shooting of Dudley George, an unarmed protester during the Ipperwash land dispute 12 years ago.�
The timing, he said, didn’t allow him to do otherwise.�
“It was coincidental that the Ipperwash report finally came out when it did . . . and I thought this was probably a good time to make sure that (recommendation 30) was put forward,” Beaucage said, noting that specific part of the report suggests colleges and universities start working with aboriginal communities and issues to create awareness for all Canadians, making for easier reconcilliation and co-operation in the future. “Canadore has been just excellent . . . and they are a lead college in Ontario in this regard.”�
Taylor said the number of convocations, as well as the calibre of the guest speakers, spoke volumes about how the college has grown over the years.�
This year, during five different graduation ceremonies, including the first ever at the Aviation Campus for the Aviation and Skilled Trades program, nearly 1,100 students were given diplomas.�
“Even 10 years ago, we had a convocation Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon,” she said, noting this year’s spanned five different days.”�
“It really reflects that the college now operates year round and that we have a much larger student body.”