Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? at Miscellany Room.
My wife and I went to a presentation and concert sponsored by conservation group Ontario Nature, the final stop in the “Together for Nature” Tour, which visited Ottawa, Toronto, Kitchener and my home town of London.
The first part of the evening was given over to a number of First Nations speakers from Northern Ontario whose land and way of life are threatened by the provincial government’s drive to “develop” an extensive belt of mineral deposits that has been dubbed the “Ring of Fire,”. We also heard from a member of the legal team that has been working on their behalf.
One of the things that struck me about these speakers, both young (early to mid twenties) and old ( 50’s or so) was how un-angry they were. In fact one of the older speakers, a member of Friends of the Attawapiskat River said he felt badly for having spoken “too aggressively” at an earlier venue. I would have found it hard to not be angry, given what they’re facing, what has happened, and what they stand to have taken from them, all in the name of “progress” and “development”, but really, on the altar of greed and limitless, heedless growth in appeasement to the gods of the market. The younger speakers in particular were very moving and inspirational, despite their relative inexperience to public speaking.
They told their stories and asked for our help, to follow their posts on social media (links below, for those who want to look further into this), saying that no effort or gesture was too small, that every bit helps. I got the t-shirt for the event, and the hoodie emblazoned with the logo of the legal team. (To start with, I decided that I would write a letter to Ontario Premier Doug Ford, about more of which below.)
The speakers were from:
Friends of the Attawawapiskat River
Okinawak
Here We Stand
LAND (Legal Advocates for Nature’s Defence)
The second part of the evening was a performance by Inuit singer Susan Aglukark, who, between songs told stories of her parents living through the 1953 action by the Canadian government to remove the Inuit from their traditional, nomadic life on the land and place them in fixed, permanent “settled” communities, and her own search for her family’s past. She ended the night with her 1995 hit O Siem, which brought me to tears, and Hina Na Ho, which brought me to my feet to join the circle dance that wove its way around the concert space. Altogether a very powerful evening, which opened my eyes and heart.
So, as part of my “every little thing helps,” I’ve written a letter to Ontario Premier Doug Ford. But in keeping with the spirit of the Indigenous speaker who regretted having come across as aggressive, I removed my more usual tone of snark, anger and sarcasm in favour of something more open and concilliatory. I don’t pull any punches, but I’m leaving out the venom and vitriole, despite my initial thought to compare Ford’s use of s0o-called “Special Economic Zones” to Trump’s opening of huge protected areas to “resource development.” It’s still me, but my writing is wearing a virtual suit and tie, rather than throwing rhetorical Molotov cocktails. Know your audience. Framing is important!
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Premier Ford;
On the evening of September 18, my wife and I had the privilege of seeing a remarkable presentation in London by a group of people from the James Bay, Hudson Bay region of Northern Ontario. It was part of a tour sponsored in part by Ontario Nature, called Together for Nature. It featured speakers from Friends of the Attawapiskat River, Okinawak, Here We Stand, and LAND (Legal Advocates for Nature’s Defence). They had travelled to Southern Ontario in order to tell us their stories, and ask for our support in their efforts to protect the land, air, and water of their home, upon which they depend to maintain their way of life. They asked us to help them protect all their relations; the birds, fish, animals and plants with whom they live. These places and beings are threatened by development of the so-called “Ring of Fire,” the project to extract the minerals that lay under the land on which they live. They are afraid that the mining and processing of these minerals will damage or destroy their way of life. And with good reason.
The “Special Economic Zones” which “relax” rules and regulations do not sound like very good or safe ideas. I wouldn’t want to ride in a car, or fly in an airliner built in a factory where the rules and regulations have been removed or “streamlined.” Sometimes “red tape” saves lives. All this streamlining is in aid of speeding up approval. That sounds a lot like guaranteeing approval, and bypassing standards and oversight that might otherwise lead to the rightful delay or rejection of a project. Maybe, sometimes, the answer should be “No.”
We should not curtail, short-circuit, or bypass thorough, careful investigation and evaluation of projects that have a potentially large ecological footprint. All such projects need open, democratic consultation, oversight and accountability. No exceptions. Why the rush? The minerals aren’t going anywhere. They can wait; forever if necessary. The “urgency” and “criticality” in this equation is the desire of some to make lots and lots of money. That is not a good enough reason to proceed with this project in this manner, or maybe at all. Just because someone stands to make money from an idea does not automatically make that idea a good one. We can no longer afford “business as usual.” This way of thinking has brought us to the combined global crises of climate disruption, toxic contamination of air, water, and land, and the cascading loss of biodiversity that has become a human-created mass extinction event. This short-sighted attitude of spending tomorrow for the bottom line today has resulted in the Anthropocene.
We need to think in longer time frames. Our responsibilities are greater than we realize, because the decisions we make today have an impact, for good or for ill, that carries on in perpetuity. We are “deciding” for all who come after us. This calls for a longer view, a wider view, and a recalibration of both our values and our priorities.We need a reality check.
We operate within a world view that tells us that everyone and everything has its price, and that puts a price on everything. We plan and act as if all costs are strictly monetary, or mere “externalities” that can be disregarded, written off, and forgotten. We might forget, but the Earth does not. We might think we’re throwing refuse away, or that we can leave our problems for the future to solve. But our world is not infinite. It has limits. We must learn to live within them. There is no “away,” and “the future” is now. The entire world is our back yard. We all live downwind or downstream of somewhere, places where others like us, caught in the same blinkered view, are throwing things “away”, and bequeathing their troubles to generations yet to come, committing them to shoulder a burden they never asked for, and do not deserve. This cannot last.
Some things are beyond price. Some things are not for sale. And the costs of losing some things are not simply out-of-pocket expenses that can be balanced in the ledger later on. We all need air to breathe, water to drink, land to provide food. And because of the streamlining and deregulation of the “Ring of Fire” area, we are taking away these very things from the people who live there. As one of the speakers from Okiniwak said, “It was never about money.” The true bounty of this land is not under the ground. It is all the life that arises from it, the home and safety it provides. This is what is at risk. This is what they are protecting.
Again and again, these fearful, brave people, both youth and Elders, spoke of the Seventh Generation, and of stewardship. And of love: the love for and of their people, their love of the land, their love of all their relations- the animals, birds and fish that surround and sustain them. And the love of Creator, supporting and guiding them on their journey to ask for our witness, and our help. They described “legacy” as planting seeds you will never live to see bloom, of making decisions and acting on behalf of people whose faces you will never see. They spoke of leaving the world a better place for their children, and their children, in turn, leaving the world a better place for theirs. They cannot do this if we take their way of life from them, if we poison their water, air, and land.
Some might say that by opposing development of the “Ring of Fire,” these people are “standing in the way of progress.” Well, I stand with them. To me, they are the way of progress. We should listen to them and learn from them. They have asked for our help. By doing so, they are helping us. And we do need help. We are being given a chance to stop and see where we are heading, and decide if it is somewhere we want to go. We have choices to make, a path to choose. Looking around, we can see signs that our current way leads to a dead end. Theirs is a Good Path, and it is one we can all follow, together, looking Seven Generations ahead. We need to safeguard the Seventh Generation. They are not here to speak, so we must speak for them. We must choose carefully, wisely, and lovingly, so that our choices will be a blessing, not a curse.
In this province, in this country, we are all Treaty people. A broad, open-minded, and generous interpretation of the Treaties we have signed, the binding commitments our forebears made to the First Nations, is the right thing to do, so that we might truly share this land that we share already. This is the way forward. This can be our legacy. This can be the seed we plant. This is the future we can create together. We need to leave the world a better place than we found it. Better for all, not just for some. Better for the land, the air, the water. Better for the plants, the animals, the fish, the birds, the insects, and all of the other Beings amongst who we live, and upon whom we depend. Premier Ford; I ask you to visit the people and communities of the Attawapiskat River, and the James Bay lowlands. Let them show you what they showed us in their presentation. Not just projected on a screen, but with your own eyes. Listen to them. See their home through their eyes. Let them open your heart as they have opened mine.
With respect,
