PIKWAKANAGAN – A group of Algonquin Elders (Grandmothers of Pikwakanagan), filed an action on March 2, 2017 in the Superior Court of Ontario challenging the authority of the Chief and Band Council of the Golden Lake First Nation (Pikwakanagan), Canada and the Algonquins of Ontario (AOO) to negotiate their constitutional rights as it relates to the land and resources of traditional Algonquin lands.
They intend to add the Province of Ontario to the action after the required notice period expires.
“The Algonquin Grandmothers of Pikwakanagan are the traditional title-holders of indigenous title and Algonquin Law must be considered along with the common law, as stated by the Supreme Court of Canada in the landmark decision of Tsilhqot’in Nation vs. British Colombia,” said Karen Whalen, spokesperson from the Grandmothers of Pikwakanagan.
The Grandmothers of Pikwakanagan asserted themselves in the Pikwakanagan First Nation when the Chief and Band Council of Pikwakanagan ignored the “No” vote of the First Nation membership in a formal referendum which rejected the Agreement-in- Principle, dated May 29, 2015, entered into by the AOO, the government of Canada and the Province of Ontario. The Grandmothers allege that no proper mandate exists to authorize negotiation on behalf of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan.
The Grandmothers of Pikwakanagan seek to protect the inherent and constitutional rights of the seven generations to come.
The Grandmothers of Pikwakanagan will seek injunctions to stop the negotiations and to stop the development by Canada and Windmill Developments of the sacred Chaudiere Falls and the sacred islands of Chaudiere, Albert and Victoria pending the outcome of this action. The Grandmothers of Pikwakanagan assert entitlement to stewardship of the sacred islands based on constitutional rights now before the Supreme Court of Canada in the case advanced by Knuxta Nation as against the development of Glacier Developments in B.C.
The Grandmothers of Pikwakanagan also assert entitlement to a declaration of indigenous title of traditional Algonquin lands and redress and compensation for land and resources since 1701.
