Dene National Chief George Mackenzie joined Indigenous leaders from across Canada on Parliament Hill on Monday to rally in support of treaty rights.
“When you think about it, Canada became a country [because] First Nations allowed it to happen,” he said, urging respect for treaties.
“We’re all one people from the Creator in heaven. So don’t forget that we love everybody the same, treat them the same. And that’s the message we’re sending to the non-Aboriginal world: support us in what we’re trying to do.”
The rally took place as King Charles and Queen Camilla arrived in Ottawa for their first visit to Canada since the King’s coronation in 2023. Charles is set to deliver the throne speech on Tuesday.
According to a press release, the First Nation chiefs are in Ottawa to reaffirm their sovereignty and nation-to-nation relationship with the Crown “at a crucial time when calls for separation have flooded mainstream media.”
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David Pratt, first vice chief of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, said the chiefs want to remind the King of his treaty obligations.
“We want to remind him to continue to uphold and respect the treaty relationship that his great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria signed with us, when all our chiefs and their predecessors years ago agreed to share this land,” he said during the rally.
“It’s not supposed to be a one-sided relationship where Canada would dictate our lives by the Indian Act and other pieces of foreign legislation. It was meant to be a respectful relationship where we would continue to live our lives, practise our treaty and inherent rights of hunting, trapping, fishing and trade amongst one another. It was not meant to be what it is today, which is the oppression of our people.”
Pratt called on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new federal government to conclude a deal on long-term reform of First Nations child welfare and fully implement treaty rights to health, education and justice.
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He also called on NWT MP Rebecca Alty, who was recently named minister of Crown-Indigenous relations, to reopen treaty tables and sit with treaty commissioners in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
“My message to Carney, his cabinet, to the King, is that we are your allies. Treat us with respect. Treat us the same way you would treat your family and that is all we’re asking,” said Grand Chief Jerry Daniels of the Southern Chiefs’ Organization.
Several chiefs raised concerns about separation talk in western Canada, particularly in Alberta.
“There will be no separation,” Pratt said.
“When we talk about separation of the provinces, we understand that that cannot happen,” said Grand Chief of Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta Trevor Mercredi.
“It may seem like we’re promoting and protecting the provinces themselves when we’re saying Alberta cannot separate. That is not true. We’re simply protecting our rights and letting Alberta know, Saskatchewan know, that they own nothing, that these rights and these lands are ours and always will be ours.”
The Dene Nation held a protest outside the NWT Legislative Assembly last week in support of treaty rights and against Alberta separation as Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was in Yellowknife for the western premiers’ conference.
Smith said she believes if Prime Minister Mark Carney advances the priorities put forward by the western premiers, that “would take the wind right out of any” separation efforts.
The First Nation chiefs plan to hold another press conference in Ottawa following the throne speech on Tuesday.
