Tell Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to respect First Nation land rights

Tell Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to respect First Nation land rights

Imagine if a mining company came onto your land without your approval and tried to dig for gold where your ancestors were buried.

For the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) Indigenous Nation in northern Ontario, this is the situation they are currently facing. And it’s not even the first time.

The KI community has opposed and defeated mining companies seeking to violate their traditional lands before, first in 2008 when Platinex wanted to mine their lands, and again in 2010 when De Beers did the same. RAN activists stood with the KI community in the past, and it’s incredibly important that we do so again.

Tell Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and his Minister of Northern Development and Mines, Rick Bartolucci, to respect the KI community’s land rights.

The KI community is located about 600 miles north of Thunder Bay, Ontario, over 200 miles from any road, deep in the Boreal Forest. Aside from being critical to the lives and livelihoods of Indigenous peoples like the KI, the Boreal is also home to a vast array of wildlife and represents a massive carbon storehouse. We all have a stake in protecting the Boreal Forest and the rights of the Indigenous peoples who live there as stewards of the land.

As the KI community says in their Water Declaration and Consultation Protocol: “Together we can protect this sacred water for all people, all animals, all plants and all life.”

The Canadian government has gone to great lengths to cater to mining companies over the rights of Indigenous communities, ignoring treaties signed in good faith and even criminalizing legitimate protest against the destruction of Indigenous lands. Please take action today.