| Oct 19, 2016


'Now the real negotiations begin", says Kirby Whiteduck of Pikwakanagan

At a ceremony in Ottawa on Tuesday morning, October 18, the Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario, and the Algonquins of Ontario signed an Agreement in Principle (AIP) regarding the Algonquin Land Claim.

The AIP is “a key step toward a modern-day treaty to resolve a long-standing land claim that covers an area of 36,000 square kilometres in Eastern Ontario,” according to a release from Flavia Mussio of the Ontario Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation.

“The non-binding AIP paves the way for continued negotiations toward a final agreement that will define the ongoing rights of the Algonquins of Ontario to lands and natural resources within the settlement area”, Mussio added.

Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs for the Government of Canada, heralded the agreement as “a momentous milestone and a significant step forward on renewing Canada’s relationship with the Algonquins of Ontario.”

Robert Potts, chief negotiator and legal counsel to the Algonquins of Ontario, said the agreement “marks a critical step forward in a journey that began almost 250 years ago when the first Algonquin Petition was submitted to the Crown in 1772.”

The AIP had been stalled since the spring, even though a ratification vote among the 7,500 Algonquin electors within the territories had yielded a strong yes vote.

However, some members of the Pikwakanagan First Nation at Golden Lake were given a chance to vote in a separate process. Most of them voted against the AIP.

The Pikwakanagan Council pulled out of the land claim process at that time and throughout the months of June and July the council met with the local community and heard a number of concerns about language in the agreement. Of particular concern was the language around self-government at Pikwakanagan.

Pikwakanagan Chief of Council Kirby Whiteduck told the News today that his council sent letters to Ontario and Canada seeking clarification of specific items and received letters in return, from each of the ministers, which were shared with the community and discussed at an open meeting in July.

“For example, some of our members were concerned that if we sign a self-government agreement, we will lose our reserve, which is not what the agreement says, but people needed more assurance. There were legitimate concerns about a lack of clarity in some of the language in the AIP that needed to be addressed, and the letters did that,” said Whiteduck.

The council asked, at the meeting in July and through a mail out, for Pikwakanagan members to let them know if they should continue with the process or end it.

“Not a lot of people responded but 95% of those who did respond, said yes, continue,” Whiteduck said.

The Pikwakanagan Council passed a motion last week indicating they were ready to sign the AIP and move on to final negotiations.

“The Chief and Council will be participating in the signing of the Draft Agreement-in-Principle in the Parliament buildings along with the Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario and the Algonquins of Ontario. This will take us into negotiations, towards a final agreement,” said a release that was posted on the Pikwanagan website late last week.

However while negotiators and politicians from the federal and provincial governments and the Algonquins of Ontario are celebrating the signing of the AIP, Kirby Whiteduck is not celebrating.

“We said to them today we are now past the AIP stage in the process. It is good to be done with the AIP, but now we are into the more important and definitive negotiations. As far as we are concerned, every thing is open to change. There are important things in the AIP, but there is a lot more to negotiate. If there was nothing to negotiate, we would all just sign the AIP and be done with it.”

Whiteduck, who has been involved in the process for over 30 years, longer by decades that any of the government negotiators, is committed to negotiating a self-government agreement for Pikwakanagan as part of the land claim.

He argues that a self-government agreement is a necessity for Pikwakanagan, in part because it will allow the local council to determine membership in the community, which would no longer be tied to the Indian Act.

“Under the Indian Act, there are two general categories for status, 6-1 and 6-2. Those with 6-2 status, and that includes many Pikwakanagan members, only pass that status on if they have children with another 6-2 status parent. Otherwise their children do not have status, and this means our community shrinks. Under self-government, we can determine status ourselves,” he said.

Further he considers a self-government agreement within a land claim treaty as more powerful than self -government under a simple Act of Parliament.

“A treaty brings more security,” he said.

That is not to say that the Pikwakanagan Council is willing to sign a treaty before they are happy about all of its provisions.

“We are ready to negotiate all of the issues,” he said, “and as I said we are not bound by the AIP.”

Whiteduck also indicated that there are issues between Pikwakanagan and the off-reserve communities that need to be sorted out as well, saying that Pikwakanagan and the nine off-reserve communities (which include the Shabot Obaadjiwan) are undergoing a mediation process to try to come to an agreement over beneficiary criteria under a final treaty.

Ron Dearing, the land claim negotiator for the federal government, said today in a conference call that the Algonquin land claim negotiations are unique in that the public has been privy to more detail than in any other negotiation that Canada has negotiated, and there will be further opportunities to consult with the public over the next two or three years as final negotiations take place. He said the negotiations could be finalised in about four years.

Robert Potts resisted being pinned down to a time frame and said that even if negotiations are completed within four years, legislation in Ontario and Canada will be required to enact a treaty.

“And that takes more time,” he said.

 

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