The Chiefs of Ontario held a rally with about 200 people on Parliament Hill in Ottawa this afternoon in opposition to the Canadian government’s Bill C-5.
At that rally, Chief Shelly Moore-Frappier of Temagami First Nation stated: “Let me be clear — weaponizing the economy to suppress First Nations rights is economic terrorism. It is coercion, plain and simple, and it has no place in a country that claims to value justice or honour of the Crown.”
Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler cautioned that if Bill C-5 does pass, Canada is in for a “long, hot summer.”
And Cedar Iahtail from Attawapiskat further highlighted: “When they signed Treaty [9] … we signed it with our own laws. We call it the Constitution of the Pipe. Canada is not above our law. We’re still here and we reject Bill 5.”
The video of all the speeches can be watched here.
A media release from the Chiefs of Ontario notes: “Bill C-5 proposes sweeping new powers that would allow the federal government to fast-track major infrastructure projects. Under the legislation, a single federal minister would be authorized to approve projects, override regulatory protections, and bypass environmental and social safeguards, all without returning to Parliament for further approval.”
Toronto Star national columnist Althia Raj has highlighted that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Bill C-5, An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act, gives “cabinet the right to circumvent environmental laws in the name of getting big resource projects built.”
Raj further explains: “The Building Canada Act would allow cabinet, for a period of five years, to give the green light to projects that it believes are in the national interest, based on a loose set of factors that could shift depending on the whim of this — or any future — government. …This bill also allows cabinet to ignore laws it doesn’t want to abide by. For example, if the government is worried about the outcome of a review triggered by the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, it could delete that act from consideration. …What’s more there is no mechanism through which public consultations can result in a project’s green light turning into a red light.”
APTN News now reports: “Liberals [led by Carney] and Conservatives [under Pierre Poilievre] passed a rare closure motion [on Monday June 16] meaning that debate on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s controversial One Canadian Economy Act, or Bill C-5, will conclude by Friday [June 20] despite serious concerns about Indigenous rights, climate protections and democratic process.”
The Chiefs of Ontario comment: “Parliament is on track to pass the bill in under a week. This not only defies colonial government’s own principles of transparency and accountability but also directly contradicts Canada’s own laws, namely United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.”
Bill C-5 coincides with recent news that has seen the British Columbia government enabling the construction of the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline on Gitxsan, Gitanyow and Nisga’a lands; the Ontario government passage of Bill 5 and the likelihood that the “Ring of Fire” on Treaty 9 – Ojibway (Anishinaabe), Cree (including the Omushkegowuk) and other Indigenous Nations (Algonquin) lands – will be declared a “special economic zone”; and the Alberta government proposing a new one-million-barrel-per-day crude oil pipeline to Prince Rupert.
We continue to follow this.
