Does racism have a face in wildfire response?
OTTAWA—Does racism have a face in wildfire response?
You’ve seen the shocking video as people escape by boat from the wildfire, towering smoke on the shore. A man named Riley from CN Rail warned Namaygoosisagagun First Nation that a wildfire was risking their community. The provincial government—the people we pay to protect us all—didn’t offer any useful details to the community, and appeared to give completely mistaken information that risked their lives. With Riley’s urgent call, the community had just 40 minutes to escape via boat across the lake.
This community is called a “near band," a First Nations community that the federal government refuses to acknowledge as a First Nation, an original people. The term “near band” is the term, and for all intents and purposes this is your government refusing to acknowledge rights. When neighbouring First Nations recognize the community, that is all the evidence you need that it’s a real one.
Not a fake Lego community.
Namaygoosisagagun community members escaped to Thunder Bay and other locations, and Anishinabek Nation, the regional group, is helping them. This is not the only community impacted, both First Nations and non-Indigenous Peoples have endured wildfires, some 140-plus or so to date in northern Ontario, and we’re not even close to the end of wildfire season yet. There are many anecdotal reports of Ontarians not getting the order to evacuate in the face of clear danger, or receiving confusing communications from the province. Just to rub it in, Premier Doug Ford went to Thunder Bay for a highly controlled press conference on July 18, and didn’t even tell First Nations it was happening.
Listen to CBC’s As it Happens from July 21. Jill Dunlop, the provincial minister responsible for emergency measures, was cut off—not by CBC reporters who were correctly probing about the questionable wildfire response in the north, but by Dunlop’s own staff who pretty much hung up the phone when the minister was pressured to answer. Mic drop, but for completely the worst reason: the refusal of accountability.
Was it because First Nations came together to demand accountability from the province earlier that day? A dozen First Nations leaders held a press conference to detail the lack of involvement of First Nations in managing the crisis, and they called out Ford’s communications as propaganda attempting to spin the wildfire response as entirely positive.
Just who is running this disaster, anyhow?
The refusal to engage with voting citizens as a pattern is usually termed authoritarian, nondemocratic. When a government refuses to serve a minority, that’s breaking Canada’s Constitution and the Canadian Human Rights Act. The Ford government has some explaining to do, and likely some dismissals of ministers and staff. There's the apparent failures of emergency communication, lack of transparency, refusal for accountability, and generally questionable wildfire response. And then there’s the blatant racism, such cruel lack of caring for First Nations. It seems this Ford government has some issues.
If we let this one go, if we turn aside in the midst of our own wildfire smoke angst, what are we saying? That we’re okay with this level of disservice and racism? What’s next? What further rights and equity might get trampled? This provincial government may just bulldoze the ring of fire right over First Nations, like it’s 1945 all over again.
We should be furious. We should demand better. Racism should not have the face of a government. Rights are rights only.
Rose LeMay is Tlingit from the West Coast and the CEO of the Indigenous Reconciliation Group. She writes twice a month about Indigenous inclusion and reconciliation. In Tlingit worldview, the stories are the knowledge system, sometimes told through myth and sometimes contradicting the myths told by others. But always with at least some truth.
The Hill Times