Consultation means nothing without consent
June 16, 2009
Three First Nation Band Councils released a joint statement last month in response to the newly proposed Ontario Mining Act, once again raising a critical issue that the Government of Ontario and the Supreme Court of Canada has repeatedly failed to recognize: The right to Say NO.
In effect, the absence of this right (the right of consent) in the Ontario Mining Act or any other piece of legislation in Canada is an allowance by the government to molest Indigenous People.
It is further allowance to molest Canadian citizens, some have realized, while others foolishly form their own “citizen militias” to challenge and threaten indigenous people because they themselves fail to grasp the meaning of the word —or anything substantial when it comes to Indigenous People in Canada.
As far as Indigenous rights are concerned, the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, the Mushkegowuk Council, and Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KIFN) point out how the absence of that right makes the government’s admitted obligation to “consult and accommodate” them, meaningless—because they are left with no choice but to make every concession to the govenrment and to the mining companies no matter how destructive it will be to their land-base, their culture and their way of life.
In other words, without the right of consent—or, when that right is not granted to the govenrment and the mining company by the First Nation—-the process of “consultation and accommodation” is an assault on the First Nation.
http://intercontinentalcry.org/whats-missing-in-mining-act-changes-the-r...
