Campaign Overview
The names given to the vast peatlands of Ontario’s north are “Yehewin Aski” and “Bakitanaamowin Aki,” meaning the Breathing Lands. It’s an incredibly powerful evocation of the life-giving role of a vital ecosystem that has sustained Indigenous Peoples since time immemorial.
Successive settler governments have run roughshod over Indigenous Peoples’ Treaty No. 9 rights for over a century. The settler governments have gained wealth from exploiting the resources in Treaty No. 9, which has resulted in severe impoverishment for First Nations. The Ontario government is still trying to fast-track rapid industrial development on Indigenous lands, pushing for permits to mine, deforest, build roads, and dam rivers without the consent of Indigenous Nations.
Now: Indigenous Peoples are saying, “enough”. A coalition of several Nations (“Plaintiff Nations”) are taking Ontario and Canada to court to press for co-jurisdiction in Treaty No. 9 territory, giving them greater decision-making power over resource extraction projects on their lands. Their strategic treaty-rights case aims at protecting the largest intact boreal forest in the world — a carbon storehouse as globally significant as the Amazon rainforest.