This article was first published on APTN News.
The RCMP now has a tool that will allow them to remove Mi’kmaw land protectors from a checkpoint set up at the base of Hunters Mountain in Unama’ki, Mi’kmaq for Cape Breton.
On Friday, the Canadian provincial government in Nova Scotia, led by Premier Tim Houston, passed the Protecting Nova Scotians Act, an omnibus law that covers everything from funeral services to liquor licenses. For Mi’kmaw land protectors on Hunters Mountain, the law prohibits the blocking of any roads on Crown Land.
The province claims that the omnibus bill is being imposed in order to protect Nova Scotians utilising wood resources and not because of the checkpoint.
But Mi’kmaw said they will be criminalised for practising their rights, including Treaty Rights Day that was celebrated on Oct. 1.
The Mi’kmaq created the checkpoint four weeks ago at Hunters Mountain to prevent logging trucks from clear-cutting and destroying their forests.
Mi’kmaw said that locals are welcome to visit the welcome.
Michelle Paul, a Mi’kmaw land and water protector, said the law impedes Mi’kmaq inherent rights.
“The people will stay here like the stars are stuck in the sky; they are not going to move as they shouldn’t, because our treaties say so. We should be unhindered, we should be unmolested and free to roam in our territories and our homelands,” said Paul.
Concerns about the decline in the moose population, impacts on the environment, sacred sites and medicines led to the Mi’kmaq taking back their right to steward the land.
The bill amends the Crown Lands Act, which would make it illegal to block access on Crown land roads. Law enforcement now has the power to remove any encampments and obstructions on the roadway.
Land protectors who refuse to leave the mountain could face up to a $50,000 fine and or six months in jail.
APTN News is inside the checkpoint. The road to the forest is not blocked. Off to the side of the road are encampments for protectors to live in.
Despite threats of being arrested or removed by law enforcement, Mi’kmaw land protector, Kukuwes Wowkis, said they will remain where they are on the mountain.
“They can try to cross our cedar lines, we are not going anywhere. This bill passing through legislation and stuff like that does not mean nothing to me anyway. I’m staying here,” said Wowkis.
Sipekne’katik First Nation is calling on the minister responsible for L’nu Affairs to resign.
“Minister [Leah] Martin does not speak for Sipekne’katik, and she most certainly does not speak for the Mi’kmaq Nation,” said Chief Michelle Glasgow. “Minister Leah Martin’s support for this legislation demonstrates a fundamental disregard for Mi’kmaq rights and a failure to uphold the Province’s legal and moral obligations.”
Martin is the first Indigenous MLA to sit in the province’s legislature, according to the government’s website.
The Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs is demanding a meeting with Houston over the passage of the law.
“Premier Houston and his government need to know that they are not the only ones calling the shots here in Mi’kma’ki. We not only hold Treaty Rights, but also Aboriginal Rights, Jurisdictions and Title, as we never ceded or surrendered our lands, waters and resources,” said Chief Terrance Paul in a statement on Friday. “Making decisions without us is unconstitutional and wrong”.
Previously, law enforcement would have had to provide a 60-day notice before removing any obstruction or blockade to the road. With the new bill being introduced, that notice would no longer be mandatory and law enforcement could take legal action on the mountain at any time.
Mi’kmaq land protectors celebrated Treaty Day, a statutory holiday in Nova Scotia, with drumming and dancing. The day represents the Peace and Friendship Treaties that were first signed by the Mi’kmaq and the Crown in 1725.
Each year, the day allows for the Mi’kmaq to celebrate their culture, heritage and honour their inherent rights to the land and its resources.
“We’re celebrating our treaty day, we’re celebrating our treaty rights and [Premier] Tim Houston can go lick the boots of JD Irving all he wants, because we’re not going anywhere,” said Donald Marshall, son of Donald Marshall Jr., whose victory in court recognised the Mi’kmaq treaty rights to fish, harvest and trade. “I won’t quit, my people won’t quit, we’re not going anywhere, mist nogahma.”
The series of signed treaties between the government and the Mi’kmaq allow for the Mi’kmaq to protect, hunt, fish and gather to sustain a livelihood from the land. Treaty Day also promotes reflection on the relationship between the federal government and Mi’kmaq peoples and represents moving forward in reconciliation.
The Mi’kmaq never ceded their land and territory; the agreements were signed with the British to end conflicts beginning in 1725 and to allow for co-existence with settlers if they were to let them live traditionally the way they were before colonialism.
The omnibus bill hinders the relationship with the provincial government and threatens reconciliation by violating Mi’kmaq protected rights to steward and utilise the land and its resources.
By Angel Moor and Nangoonskeh Rose Jacobs of APTN News.
