Busy spring for political office
It has been a busy spring season with Anishinabek Nation recently wrapping up a successful hybrid Grand Council Assembly on May 31-June 2, 2022. We would like to express our utmost appreciation and gratitude to Red Rock Indian Band for graciously hosting us at the Best Western Nor’wester in Thunder Bay, Ontario. We look forward to visiting your community in the near future to celebrate the completion of your new community centre!
Over the course of this season, our office will be focusing on numerous priorities. An immediate priority is ensuring critical follow-up to our Assembly. We will collaborate with sectoral leads on developing a progressive and practical approach to implement and actionize resolutions in an effective and transparent manner. It was wonderful to be in the presence of leadership again and we are grateful for the opportunity to hear directly from our Chiefs on what we need to act on urgently. We acknowledge what a challenging time the last two years have been for our communities and thank you for your inspiration and strength in leadership.
Members of the Grand Council and Executive Council will be traveling to the Assembly of First Nations Annual Assembly on July 5-7, 2022. This year’s assembly is in a hybrid format and we are enthusiastic to convene with leaders across our nations to discuss the critical issues affecting First Nations and to coordinate on collective action. As always, we will represent the Anishinabek Nation, alongside our attending leadership, and ensure that our unified priorities are at the forefront of our discussions.
June 2 saw the provincial election. We would like to congratulate the Progressive Conservative government on their re-election. There is much work to be done and we will be reaching out as soon as possible to reconvene on our collaborative efforts to advance solutions and outcomes that will improve the lives of our citizens. Our communities have made clear what they need in this current climate and we must address the inequities they are facing. Ontario must strive to become an equal Treaty partner and fulfill a responsibility to a unified effort in this relationship. We look forward to working on the continuation of strengthening this relationship with Premier Doug Ford and his Cabinet.
We would also like to thank the parties who joined us in our lobbying efforts leading up to the election. The New Democratic Party, Liberal, and Green parties met with members of our Executive Council on March 17-18, 2022. We were able to iterate urgent priorities and outstanding issues that require outcomes regarding, reforming the Additions to Reserves process, Taxation Revenue, and Land-based Treatments for Addictions. Unfortunately, the Conservatives were unable to align schedules to participate in this effort; however, we will ensure our messages are taken with us in our initial meetings with their new Cabinet.
As mentioned in our previous update, we concentrated on preparation for Regional meetings. We were happy to hold these in hybrid format during the month of April. We appreciate leadership’s engagement within these sessions and sharing with us some of the challenges and successes you have been experiencing this past year. As we move forward with future Regional meetings, we look forward to evolving the format and enhancing the agenda to ensure we are maximizing your time and engagement and that we align our advocacy with community priorities.
On June 6, we celebrated our inaugural Anishinaabe Giizhigad and the members of the Grand Council commemorated on Nipissing First Nation with a feast and ceremony. It is truly heartwarming and uplifting to see this day come to fruition after many years of advice and wisdom from our Elders who guided the process and protocol to see this day of recognition for our Nation. Chiefs-in-Assembly at our recent Grand Council Assembly unanimously passed Resolution: Recognition of Anishinabek Giizhigad and we look forward to seeing this very special day becoming a significant, annual celebration in all Anishinabek First Nations.
Noted Activities and Past Events:
● Meeting with Ontario Regional Chief, the Ministry of Indigenous Affairs and Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry on March 24, 2022, to discuss Trapping Allocation policy.
● Working with Provincial Territorial Organization’s to address the Thunder Bay Police Service issue. Advocacy included a press conference at Queen’s Park, Toronto, Ontario, on March 30, 2022.
● Joined five (5) Anishinabek Nation member First Nations and federal partners at the virtual Anishinabek Nation Governance Agreement Signing Ceremony on April 6, 2022.
● Represented Anishinabek Nation at the Public Policy Forum Gala to support Autumn Peltier, Anishinabek Nation Chief Water Commissioner, who received an Emerging Leader Award in April 2022 to recognize her water advocacy.