Uphold Canada's Honour, Save the Benny Forest

Dear Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,

Please help me save my ancestral hunting land near the watershed between Sudbury and Timmins, Ontario. Canada failed to fulfill promises made by the Crown to the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek Nation in its 1850 Robinson Huron treaty talks.  In 1884 when Canada did finally set 81 sq. miles aside as a reserve for the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek people, the surveyor promised to come back each summer to survey around each of the clan hunting territories "lands occupied by them" within the wider traditional territory between Whitefish and Wahnapitae rivers up to the watershed.  These were well established and recognized hunting territories at the time, each belonging to one of the ten or so families of the nation.  However, instead of sending someone to survey around these territories as promised so we could continue our way of life, Canada took away our rights as separate nations and pressured us to move to the one small reserve already surveyed and become dependent on Canada and its dollar.  My family did not move onto the reserve, but continued to survive on our ancestral land, taking jobs where we could when game was depleted and additional ways were needed for survival.  In a court case between the federal and provincial government over timber rights in 1888, the surveyor George Abrey said, "My instructions were to curtail the reserve."  When asked, "Did you arrive at any conclusions at the time of your survey as to what land had been occupied by the Indians at the time of the Treaty?" he said, "I cannot say that I did or did not.  The reason is that I did not confine myself to discerning occupation at that time as I interpreted m instructions to embrace otehr things."  Today with my elder Art Petahtegoose I am standing up to remind Canada of the urgent need to fulfill its promises before too much is lost.

We have to stop the cutting happening right now.  These are rare woods that we have to keep there with man valuable medicines animals and plants.  We have given the MNR all the information they need about endangered species to stop them and yet they want to break their own law.  I have no choice but to go to the courts or federal level.  We need this court order or our word to the government building.  We have to get there.  Even if the woods are cut, I am still asking for 20 miles around Benny so I can start rebuilding that forest.  With Creator's and the ancestors' help we can rebuild the forest and get rid of those toxins.  I've always been honoured to be with Atikameksheng Anishnawbek and I still want that honour to be there.  Creator has put us down here to take care of the land and make sure this destruction does not happen.  I know my dad has gone to war for this land and I want to honour him and continue defending our land from those that would destroy it.  I want to honor my ancestors that are buried there.  The big government has got to know and understand that this is our duty as Nishnaabe people.  With Creator behind me I know we can do this together, with my brothers and sisters that live upon this land.  Under the Creator's eyes and our ancestors' eyes they made this treaty for us and we have to keep honouring that treaty because they got it to say this is our land and they must ask us before they do this.  My great great great grandfather Chief Shawanakeshick got them to agree to come out and protect where all the families were, protect all our Atikameksheng Anishnawbek hunting territories, but they did not do that!  Underneath God's eyes of their religion, their belief, they have made a bible and swore over it they would do this.  So with that knowledge in front of the Creator's eyes, we have to show we are still there as Nishnaabe people.  In the name of our ancestors and the Creator we must take this stand to do this right.  We have to make them open those books and re-read them about everything our people stood up for.  We have fallen behind.  We have to start again and I want this to start in Benny.  I want this to happen for us all of us, our families, and Mother Earth.  There will be so much damage to the world just by her getting sick, pollution and damage to her soil on top that we live on.  We have to show her that we are here.  We have a camp in Benny where our youth can come to learn about the forest and our traditional way of life.  We have also started an Arts Co-op and Living Learning Centre.  We have been on the CTV evening news five times, in the Sudbury Star twice and in other media as well.  We have communicated with our M.P. and M.P.P. and the Ontario Minister of Natural Resources and his local team since April of last year when cutters arrived in Benny.  Studies have been funded and completed to consider a small (3 sq. mi.) no cut zone around Benny but we didn't even win that, and in the mean time about 30 sq. mi. of bush was cut within 20 miles of Benny just this year alone, within the MNRF's ten year plan.  A lawyer has written up a 27 page detailed injunction request for us to stop current cutting but feels we don't have enough financial or political support yet to win that injunction from a judge to give us time to settle this through the courts.  We are asking you for the support she and we need so urgently at this time.

Please come visit! And let me know at your earliest convenience what you think can be done to uphold Canada's obligation to my peopl and enable me to protect that land as is my duty as a Nishnaabe person.

Thank you for your consideration.

Clyde McNichol

Cartier, Ontario

705-690-3844