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An open letter to Canadian citizens from Peawanuck

Most Canadians are blissfully ignorant of the dire, desolate situation of many of our First Nations people on their reserves. Kashechewan is one glaring example about which we've heard, and so is the Ojibwa reserve near Sarnia, Ontario. Tragically, there are many more, as evidenced by this impassioned open letter from a Cree woman in Peawanuck, a reserve in Northern Ontario.

Canada has a crisis, and it is not something coming from the world outside our borders. Our crisis is internal, one of our own making, caused by our governments' long neglect, disregard, and abuse of our Native people.

An open letter to Canadian citizens,

I am number 14600***01 and I live in Peawanuck, a Cree community of 250 located on the Winisk River that flows into the Hudson Bay (northern Ontario). It is one of the most beautiful places in the country filled with all the abundance that nature can offer. It is also a First Nations reserve and its citizens are classified as a number, under the Indian Act.

There has recently been more talk of the soaring prices throughout the country. In Peawanuck, this has been a harsh reality for many years. Our current price of gas is $2.75 a litre. Our current price for hydro is 16 cents per kilowatt. We pay over $1600 for a return plane ticket to the closest city, which is Timmins.

Can we afford to live with these costs? No we can't. We are a typical remote First Nation community dictated to and living under the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs (INAC), and this is not by choice.

Historically, treaties of "good faith" have brought us rights and the Indian Act maintains our status. In truth, treaties were signed under the premise that they would be nation to nation agreements, not the servant and master agreements as they now seem to be.

In my community there are many issues that need to be addressed and resolved. I would like to bring your attention to our latest, it is one of hydro that directly relates to our economy. We pay an excessive 16 cents per kilowatt in comparison to the regulated 5-5.8 cents of our southern neighbors.

In a discriminating act, INAC lowered our funding to the point where we couldn't afford to run our diesel generator and then gave a company based out of Manitoba, Pritchard Industrial, more money to run it. This act is now generating more than our electricity. It is generating an increased state of poverty for our people and an economic leakage to the province of Manitoba. Pritchard is making a profit at the expense of our poverty.

The funding we receive is based on per capita and in addition to our small population, we are the second most northern community in Ontario. Why isn't geographic location taken into consideration for these so-called funding formulas? It is certainly taken into consideration by the companies who charge us.

It needs to be understood that we rely on funding agreements. In accordance to the 'Indian Act of Canada', it is unlawful to carryout the same economic investment activities that other citizens of Ontario and Canada have and enjoy. Living on Reserve, we cannot secure loans at the banks. Our community cannot get a credit rating so we cannot borrow money similar to municipalities. There is no chance for economic opportunity because of the law, not because of our communities inabilities or lack of know how.

Next week on June 8th, Pritchard Industrial will be paying a visit to Peawanuck to disconnect the electricity for some households. This comes under the direction of Indian and Northern Affairs. They came last year for the same reason and at the time and among the disconnected was a disabled single mother with three small children. Is this how Indian Affairs treats the people whose rights they are meant to protect?

You now may be saying, reduce your consumption, pay your bills. This is not always possible with the combination of the high cost of living and no economy. It is a continuing struggle. So what are the options?

INAC Minister Jim Prentice, MP Charlie Angus and MPP Gilles Bisson, you are invited to be here when households are being disconnected. To watch as the rights you are obligated to protect are being crushed again.

So lets scratch 'genocide and assimilation' and pencil in 'establish meaningful relationships and a more certain dialogue'.

We deserve more than band-aid solutions.

The only downside to seemingly beneficial decisions is this, when the government does decide to help one First Nation, another First Nation suffers. The end result? Divide and conquer. This is a tactic that has gone on long enough.

I dare anyone in this country to bring up the issue of moving the First Nation's population to mainstream society to relieve them of their hardships on Reserve. This act would be one of assimilation and genocide.

Assimilation is the stated purpose of the Indian Act and yet we are still not assimilated. We do not want to be assimilated. We want to be allowed to live in our own traditional way and lands without being penalized by mainstream society for being First Nation people.

We are not a minority. This is a misconception. We are a distinct society, one filled with a history so vast and steeped in tradition, yet this fact is conveniently absent in the history books. The next time you wish to speak ignorantly about your Native neighbors, look up the word 'ethnocentric' in the dictionary and think twice.

We need to be educated, both native and non.

There are a lot of Reserves who are forced to live in third world conditions, it is an every day reality for many. Is this Canada? No, it can't be, can it?

As citizens of this country there are basic human and distinct rights that must be protected despite our differences. How much aid has gone to other countries when the problems they deal with are also right here in Canada? Poverty, genocide, death, discrimination and natural disasters.

As our history is slowly revealed, it will tell of our situation, one of uniqueness and accountability. In fact it is not us who need to be accountable to the Federal Government and Indian Affairs, it is they, who need to be accountable to us.

On an end note, my heart goes out to our neighbors from Kashechewan. They are facing one of the hardest times they will have to face as a community. They deserve our support and they deserve their integrity for the immeasurable amount of strength they have maintained. Do not give up.



WE DESERVE BETTER.
Sincerely,

Catherine Gull, #14600***01, under the Indian Act

Tags for this entry: Cree Nation, First Nations, Indian Act.

posted by Annamarie at 10:44 PM