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Ontario holds the key to protecting James Bay's Indigenous waters

Atta River looking towards James Bay. Despite good-faith efforts to engage the province of Ontario, they have yet to come to the table, saying our proposed National Marine Conservation Area is ‘federal jurisdiction.’ Jeronimo Kataquapit video/Mushkegowuk Council

Before Thomas James and Henry Hudson sailed through the bays of Weeneebeg and Washaybeyoh, the Omushkego — “the strong people,” in English — lived here. The Omushkego traditional territories cover almost a third of northern Ontario, including a large portion of southwestern Hudson Bay (Washaybeyoh) and western James Bay (Weeneebeg). We’ve always lived here, and we always will. But we haven’t always had a say in what happens to our lands and waters.

Earlier this year, a major step was taken by Canada and Mushkegowuk Council toward protecting the rich offshore waters of Weeneebeg and Washaybeyoh under a proposed Mushkegowuk National Marine Conservation Area. Now is the time for the Ontario government to protect the coastal region and near-shore areas using provincial legislative tools. 

Action is needed by Ontario because federal jurisdiction does not extend to the coast or include the coastline. If it remains open to mining and other industrial developments, it would be a huge gap and risk for our people because the coast is our home, a spiritual place of rejuvenation, a source of food and medicine, a place for our youth to learn and our travel corridor. 

It would also be a huge risk to wildlife including polar bears, birds, belugas, and walrus. Scientists at the National Audubon Society re-affirm what our elders have told us for generations, the seacoast is of hemispheric importance for hundreds of species of breeding and migratory birds, as well as a key stopover point for the Red Knot, an endangered bird. 

Despite good-faith efforts to engage the province of Ontario, they have yet to come to the table, saying our proposed National Marine Conservation Area is ‘federal jurisdiction.’  

Source: National Audubon Society

Another important reason we need Ontario to come to the table is because their participation would unlock much-needed federal funding and private philanthropic dollars to support Omushkego jobs, monitoring and infrastructure related to marine conservation through an international initiative called Project Finance for Permanence. This is our jobs initiative —  more than 115 jobs for our people, at least six monitoring stations and significant benefits to our local economy are at stake —  and we need Premier Ford to get behind it. 

Protecting the coast would also be consistent with urgent and ambitious action needed toward halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 and restoring biological diversity levels by 2050 as per the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). 

Despite good-faith efforts to engage the province of Ontario, they have yet to come to the table, saying our proposed National Marine Conservation Area is ‘federal jurisdiction., writes Leo Friday

At COP16 in Colombia, governments were tasked with reviewing the state of implementation of the GBF. Ontario could begin to make progress on these objectives by working with us immediately to safeguard our globally significant marine and coastal ecosystem and then, turn its attention in the medium term to the vast complex of intact peatlands inland that store up to five times as much carbon as the Amazon rainforest per square metre. 

So, although these waters are important to us, we know what happens here isn’t just about our people. In the Omushkego worldview, everything is connected — the Cree word, “Wahkohtowin,” expresses the vast web of kinship that ties us together with one another and the natural world. 

Wahkohtowin teaches us that the impact of our decisions affects everyone. Given the crises facing the world’s climate and biodiversity, the decisions we make around how to use and protect this place are not just for ourselves, but for all of us. 

Historically, we haven’t received the same courtesy. When our ancestors signed Treaty 9, we believed this agreement would ensure the land and resources would be shared for the benefit of all. It was not a surrender, but a promise that the Crown would respect our rights, honour, our relationship to the land, and help foster the well-being of future generations. More than a century later, the Ontario government continues to fall short of promises related to housing, clean water, access to land, sharing of resources, and equitable healthcare, to name a few.

In many cases, Omushkego communities have been an afterthought in decisions about both conservation and development on our land — and done the wrong way, both can have a negative impact. For example, parks such as Akimiski Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary were created without consulting First Nations, interfered with our harvesting rights, and affected our ability to practice our traditions and feed our families, while expanding industries, such as mineral exploration and mining, are threatening ecosystems important for our well-being. The emerging model of Indigenous-led conservation is ensuring that our knowledge, values and ways of life are driving the choices around how and why these areas are used. 

Of course, the health of the waters is connected to the land and vice versa. While it's vital that we protect our ocean and coastlines, we need a separate plan to manage the important carbon reserves of the peatlands, which also hold critical minerals, such as nickel. Our people aren’t opposed to development — one of our Nations, Taykwa Tagamou, has a business partnership with Canada Nickel in the Timmins area. 

But just like conservation, it needs to be done in a way that centres on the long-term well-being of communities and benefits everyone, including future generations, who will inherit both the problems and opportunities we create. Our people are also not afraid to act when there has been too much development in our homelands, as is the case in the Moose River basin. 

For example, for more than two decades, Moose Cree First Nation has been clear: Industrial development of any kind will not be tolerated in the North French River, the last remaining intact watershed of the Moose River, as it will have substantial, irreversible impacts on the Aboriginal and treaty rights of Moose Cree people and undermine their deep spiritual connection with the lands and waters that sustain their way of life. 

It’s easy to forget the many ways we are all dependent on one another and on the natural world. But the reality is, we are all connected, and the decisions we make can have far-ranging consequences. By working to protect Weeneebeg and Washaybeyoh and the North French River, we’re acknowledging our collective responsibilities to the people and animals we share the land with. We hope Ontario will do the same.

Walter Leo Friday is the Grand Chief of Mushkegowuk Council, which is a tribal council representing seven First Nations located in northeastern Ontario up to the James Bay coast. 

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