A demonstrator holds a sign in Toronto on June 4.Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press
A Northern Ontario First Nation plans to launch a legal action against the province later this week aimed at requiring the mining industry to consult with the Indigenous people before staking claims.
Ontario’s free-entry system makes it easy for individuals and companies to file a claim online in return for a nominal fee.
On Friday, Grassy Narrows will hold a press conference at Queen’s Park, announcing that it has served the province in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
In its notice of application, which was obtained by The Globe and Mail, Grassy Narrows says the current staking system violates both the government’s duty to consult the Indigenous people under Section 35 of the Constitution, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which requires free, prior and informed consent.
Grassy Narrows First Nation sues Ontario, federal governments over mercury poisoning
In addition to requiring the industry to consult the First Nation for future mining claims, Grassy Narrows is asking the court to rescind all mining claims that have already been granted.
There are more than 10,000 claims that have been staked in Grassy Narrows’ area – 5,000 of them since 2018, when the province moved its staking platform to an online system.
“We only find out after the claims have been granted and after Ontario has given strangers a green light to carve up the land that we cherish and rely on,“ Grassy Narrows Chief Rudy Turtle wrote in an e-mail to The Globe. “This old law is outdated, unconstitutional, and offensive.”
Jack Fazzari, press secretary for Ontario Attorney-General Doug Downey, declined to comment.
An Anishinaabe First Nation in Northwestern Ontario, Grassy Narrows is located about 80 kilometres north of Kenora. Its traditional territory covers approximately 7,500 square kilometres within the Treaty 3 area.
If Grassy Narrows’ suit against Ontario is successful, it would set a precedent that may affect the entire province and not just the First Nation’s traditional territory.
Last year, British Columbia committed to moving away from its free-entry system for staking after two First Nations won a court case against the province. The court ordered B.C. to put in place a new system that will ensure consultation with the Indigenous people.
Currently, the Indigenous community must be consulted by mining companies in Ontario only for more advanced exploration work and mining, both of which can be extremely detrimental to the land.
While prospecting work is far less disruptive than mining, Grassy Narrows maintains that work on claims harms its traditional hunting, trapping, fishing and medicine-gathering grounds. The First Nation says that individuals or companies holding mining claims can conduct assessment work on the land, which includes building trails for heavy machinery, clearing trees and brush, digging pits and trenches, and stripping the soil off the bedrock.
Industrial activity around Grassy Narrows saw about 9,000 kilograms of mercury dumped into its rivers in the 1960s and 1970s, contaminating the First Nation’s rivers and supply of fish, and leaving many of its population suffering health effects from mercury poisoning.
“The mining act takes us in the opposite direction of reconciliation and healing, and forces more grief and conflict on my people whose burden is already too great,” Mr. Turtle said. “I will not stand for this, and I hope that the courts will see that justice is done here for Grassy Narrows and for all First Nations.”
Grassy Narrows is not the only Indigenous group in Ontario to voice objections around the prospecting system. Wapekeka, Muskrat Dam First Nation and Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (known as KI) have also publicly raised concerns.
Wayne Moonias, a former chief of Neskantaga First Nation in Ontario, told The Globe last year that he had been seeing an explosion in invasive prospecting on Neskantaga’s traditional territories, with helicopters flying overhead mapping and drilling under way, calling the system flawed.
After Premier Doug Ford came to power in 2018, he named George Pirie, a former long-time mining executive, his Minister of Mines. Last year, Mr. Pirie introduced measures aimed at speeding up mine development in Ontario, including allowing companies to defer payments related to mine closings.
And on several occasions, the Premier has said he’d be willing to jump on a bulldozer himself in order to build roads into the Ring of Fire region in the province’s far north that is rich in critical-minerals deposits.