Bills 5 and C-5 spur Six Nations teach-in on Haudenosaunee rights

Speakers at a Haudenosaunee community event last weekend say they know their inherent rights and will assert them if provincial or federal legislation infringes upon them.

Protect the Tract, a Haudenosaunee-led environmental initiative, organized a Solidarity Teach-in on National Indigenous Peoples Day on Six Nations of the Grand River, near Hamilton, Ont., in response to Ontario's Bill 5 and Canada's Bill C-5.

Ontario passed Bill 5, a law aimed at speeding up the building of large projects, particularly mines, on June 4. Canada's Bill C-5, which gives cabinet the ability to pick certain projects to speed through the regulatory process, passed the House of Commons last week and is before the Senate.

Both have been criticized for allowing governments to disregard laws to expedite development and potentially infringe on Indigenous rights.

Leroy Hill, secretary for the Council of Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs and a Cayuga sub-chief, said at the event that it's Indigenous people who will pay the price for bills' promise of economic growth.

He said in his 41 years working with the traditional Haudenosaunee council, he's seen the community work hard to reconnect with their traditions and regain their language despite the exploitation of their lands and water, shortage of land and housing and lack of clean drinking water on the Six Nations reserve.

"We'll continue with that because we know that's part of our strengthening and if that intersects with these decisions [governments] have made; our people will not stand still," Hill said.

Terri Monture, who is Kanien'kehá ka, Wolf clan from Six Nations, and a volunteer with Protect the Tract, said both Bill 5 and C-5 could create trample Indigenous rights protected in Canada's Constitution under section 35.

"We have inherent rights that we're going to exercise and we're not afraid to exercise them because we have that inherent responsibility to our coming generations, but also to our ancestors," she said.

She said they have considered themselves stewards of the land, since the Haldimand Tract was granted to them in 1784 for allying with the British during the American Revolution. The tract ran along roughly 10 kilometres on each side of the Grand River from its source around Waterhen, Ont., to Lake Erie, covering roughly 384,451 hectares.

The land allotted to Six Nations has since dwindled to about 19,425 hectares.

"Everything east of the Number 6 highway still along the Grand River was never surrendered and was literally squatted upon and then taken by the Crown and given to settlers," she said.

In 2021, Monture said the Confederacy chiefs declared a moratorium on development on the tract because of the land dispute that is before the courts.

She said Canada's foundation is predicated upon agreements and treaties like these the Crown made with Indigenous nations.