Xavier Kataquapit

First Nation youth from northern Ontario protested a major meeting between hundreds of Chiefs and Prime Minister Mark Carney in Ottawa on Thursday July 17. The federal government had set up the meeting with the Chiefs in a tightly controlled event that was held at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec. Jeronimo Kataquapit, an Attawapiskat First Nation youth leader led a group of 20 other young First Nation protesters to the entrance of the meeting and were turned away by security. Media had also been blocked from the event.

Northern First Nation Chiefs and leaders came together on the Attawapiskat River on July 1 to show their support for a youth led protest against Ontario’s Bill 5 and Canada’s Bill C5. They came to meet with Jeronimo Kataquapit, a First Nation youth from Attawapiskat First Nation who is leading a protest to occupy the land and water way that the people of the Attawapiskat River call home.

I’ve been filled with a renewed sense of hope for the future through the work of Jeronimo Kataquapit, who has made it his mission to highlight the connection that the people of Attawapiskat have to the land and it’s waters. He is the son of James Kataquapit and Monique Edwards who are both deeply connected to families in Attawapiskat and Fort Albany First Nation. James is also my cousin. Jeronimo’s grandparents Alex and Susan Kataquapit and Daniel and Elsie Edwards have always represented traditional Cree families who are deeply connected to the land.

The government of Ontario is pushing through Bill 5 which aims to designate the Ring of Fire as a so-called “special economic zone”. This bill is intended to reduce regulatory processes across major infrastructure, mining, and resource projects. The bill affects several key Acts, including: Ontario Heritage Act, Ontario Energy Board Act, Environmental Assessment Act, Mining Act, Environmental Protection Act, Electricity Act, Endangered Species Act and Rebuilding Ontario Place Act.

In a world that is so upside down these days we really need to count on our leadership and Elders to stand up for us, for mother earth and to make sure that there is a world in place for future generations. When I first started out writing and faced with interviewing government representatives like Members of Parliament and Members of Provincial Parliament, local, regional, provincial and national Chiefs, council members, Mayors, bureaucrats and business corporate executives I was intimidated.