Developers are building condos on top of sacred Algonquin Anishinabeg islands. Why are Indigenous sacred sites not given the same legal protections as settler ones?
On January 8, 2015, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) held a meeting in Ottawa. They invited the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Ottawa police, Gatineau police, representatives from a pulp, paper, and personal care company called Domtar, and a construction company called Windmill Developments.
At the time, Windmill and other developers were planning to build Zibi – “a world-class sustainable waterfront community” of condominiums, stores, and offices – on Akikodjiwan, a sacred Algonquin Anishinabeg site in downtown Ottawa and Gatineau, after demolishing the old Domtar building on the site. Meanwhile, anti-colonial activists were ramping up their opposition to the Zibi development. And – as the meeting between four police forces and the industry representatives indicates – the cops were also preparing for the resistance.
The sacred site, Akikodjiwan, includes Chaudière Falls and the Chaudière, Albert, Amelia, Victoria, Wright, and Coffin islands. (Coffin Island is now submerged, and Wright Island is considered part of the Gatineau shoreline.) These islands sit in the middle of the Kitchi Zibi (Ottawa River), between the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau.
Dream Unlimited Corporation and Theia Partners (an offshoot of Windmill Developments) – the settler developers – stand to make hundreds of millions by building condominiums on Akikodjiwan. Construction on Albert and Chaudière islands has already begun.
In 2016, the Kitigan Zibi band council filed a land claim that included the Chaudière, Albert, and Victoria islands in the Ottawa River, and there are ongoing discussions about the area between the government and representatives from the Algonquin tribal councils. A group called the Traditional Grandmothers of the Pikwakanagan has also filed a legal case in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice asserting Indigenous title to the islands.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der March/April 2019-Ausgabe von Briarpatch.
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