Mushkegoo-iskow (Mushkegowuk Woman) refused entry to ‘Public’ Doug Ford breakfast
By Marci Becking
NORTH BAY—Doug Ford’s “For the People Campaign” made a stop in North Bay Thursday morning. Local P.C. MPP Vic Fedeli joined the frontrunner in the upcoming Ontario election to host a free public breakfast. The venue was “The Grande Event Centre” facing onto North Bay’s Main Street.
Normally stringers attend such events, send in their articles and as the managing editor of the Anishinabek News, I receive them. However, because of the importance of the meeting I attended personally and arranged for my Anishinabek Nation colleague, Emma Williams, to meet me there in time for the after breakfast media scrum.
From 7:30 am to shortly after 8 am, about 200 people entered the event and over the course of the next hour, a few people came out and went in. Several attendees took the time to invite a small group of picketers on the other side of the street to come in for some pancakes. One woman, who was not a Ford supporter mistakenly went in to the breakfast and left early laughing about the confusion. She said no one had asked who she was, but those operating the door did hand her a sheet to fill out to volunteer for Vic Fedeli’s campaign.
Emma Williams, a Mushkegowuk woman who directs social media for the Anishinabek Nation, arrived at the Grande Event Centre at 9:15 am. Ms. Williams approached the same Main Street facing door that all of the other members of the public had entered through.
A man at the door told her that she could not come inside because it was a closed event. She told him that she really had to enter because she was meeting someone inside. He repeated that he could not let her inside the building because it was a closed event.
As this drama unfolded on the sidewalk, another matter of interest to the Anishinabek was developing inside. Like all northern politicians, Ford has promised to open the “ring of fire” chromite mines in the James Bay lowlands. Appealing to the northern crowd, Ford repeated that commitment in North Bay. However, in his explanation of how resource revenues will be distributed between the province, local non-indigenous communities, and rights-bearing First Nations, he announced a major reversal of recent First Nation gains.
Ford vowed: “We are going to make sure we connect with every single community, First Nations communities…we are going to get it done. [The ring of fire is] one of the highest priority for the north and the province.”
For years the standard minimum engagement between provinces and First Nations on resource development projects has been consultation, in many constituencies that standard has risen to consent. That Ford promises no more than to “connect” with First Nations about what would be a massive project indicates that a Progressive Conservative government under his leadership would take a 180 turn on reconciliation.
I met up with my colleague back at the office. She apologized that she hadn’t been able to join me because it was actually a closed event. I told her that it was advertised as a public event.
Ms. Williams was left wondering why she was turned away from a public event, saying, “Maybe it’s because I’m native – it must’ve been how I looked.”