Mamakwa: We won't be bullied by Ford's threat to ignore treaty rights

TREATY NO. 3 TERRITORY (Sioux Lookout, ON) - Ontario NDP candidate for Kiiwetinoong, Sol Mamakwa issued the following statement on Doug Ford’s recent campaign threat to override the duty to consult with Treaty No. 9 rights holders in the Ring of Fire project area:
“Once again, Doug Ford is ignoring treaty rights and trying to pit communities against each other by calling his duty to consult with rights holders “ridiculous.”
Development on the lands of the people of Treaty No. 9 cannot happen without the free, prior and informed consent of the rights holders. This kind of colonial behaviour is intolerable in 2025.
I urge Mr. Ford to stop threatening to bypass our rights and exclude us from projects that will forever change the lands and waters of Treaty No. 9. Ontario is a signatory of Treaty No. 9.
Any resource development plan must be in the interest of all the people of Ontario, including Indigenous people of the North. We won’t be denied our rights and we won’t be bullied.”
The Ontario NDP will formalize our commitment to a tripartite consultation process between First Nations rights holders, the provincial government, and resource industries on any proposed plan impacting First Nations territories.
Background:

• On Sunday, Doug Ford called consultation with First Nations on the Ring of Fire "ridiculous"
• Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples sets out that “States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them.”
• Mr. Ford has shown a pattern of disregarding the right of First Nations to free, prior and informed consent, especially when it comes to the Ring of Fire area.
• In 2018, he posted on Twitter: “If I have to hop on a bulldozer myself, we're going to start building roads to the Ring of Fire.”
• More recently in October 2024, Ford was quoted saying “We’re working on getting up to the Ring of Fire. And I always have a rule: You’re welcome to our critical minerals”.