Seaton Land Exchange

Successfully negotiated a major land securement agreement with the Ontario Realty Corporation as part of the Seaton Land Exchange, in Pickering Ontario.  Four ancient Huron-Wendat village sites were identified through a Class Environmental Assessment and preserved. In honour of Ms Heather Bastien’s advocacy on behalf of her nation, one of the sites was re-named the “Sebastien” site. Artefacts from the 2.5 hectares (6 acres) site have been firmly dated to the Middle Iroquoian period (A.D. 1275-1325). 

Friends of the Fraser Wetlands Inc.

Successfully represented the Friends of Fraser Wetlands Inc. and Curve Lake First Nation. The clients were in opposition to an application for a 60-lot condominium development on a property with 6.2 km of untouched shoreline on Stony Lake, adjacent to two Provincially Significant Wetlands.  At a three-week hearing, the application was denied.

Éloge funèbre: Heather Bastien

** Éloge funèbre ** L’héritage de Heather Bastien dans le territoire traditionnel des Hurons-Wendats

Une grande amie pour nous tous et une aînée remarquable, Mme Heather Bastien, est décédée la semaine dernière. L’Ontario a perdu l’un de ses plus grands champions du patrimoine culturel autochtone.

Après des décennies de négligence et de destruction résultant du développement urbain dans le sud de l’Ontario, les efforts que Heather a déployés, avec Luc Lainé, un conseiller juridique et quelques archéologues dévoués ont eu pour effet de protéger des douzaines d’importants villages et de lieux de sépulture wendats.

De plus, quatre lois de la province de l’Ontario ont été réformées par suite directe de ses démarches pour faire reconnaître les droits des Autochtones.

Après avoir pris sa retraite dans la soixantaine avancée, Heather s’est rendue avec ses sœurs à Midland, en Ontario, en 1999, pour visiter le territoire traditionnel de sa nation, les Hurons-Wendats. Elle n’était jamais allée en Ontario. Un dépliant de Parcs Canada à Sainte-Marie-au-Pays-des-Hurons l’a piquée au vif : il y était dit que les Hurons étaient une ethnie disparue.

Ce que peu de gens savaient, c’est que le peuple huron-wendat, lorsqu’il a été refoulé du sud de l’Ontario en 1650, avait laissé derrière lui un vaste patrimoine de villages, de lieux de sépulture, de sites sacrés, de toponymes et d’artefacts. Avec l’explosion du développement sur l’ensemble de l’ancien territoire des Hurons-Wendats, quelque 8 000 sites culturels autochtones patrimoniaux ont été détruits; de ce nombre, 2 000 étaient d’une importance considérable. Pour la plupart, c’étaient des sites hurons-wendats.

Tout cela a changé en 2001. Heather était invitée à une cérémonie au bord de la rivière Rouge, où se trouvait autrefois une communauté huronne-wendate florissante; c’est là qu’on nous a présentés.

La société immobilière Ontario Realty Corporation, une organisation gouvernementale, avait donné un terrain au Conseil des cimetières catholiques pour leur permettre d’aménager un cimetière de 50 000 lopins, adjacent à un important village wendat du 14e siècle, appelé « site Milroy ». Heather voulait savoir pourquoi les Hurons-Wendats n’avaient pas été consultés et comment il serait possible que tant de travaux d’excavation ne désacralisent pas le lieu voisin d’ensevelissement de masse ou « ossuaire » de ses ancêtres, qui n’avait pas encore été découvert.

Les organismes Environmental Defence et Save the Rouge, ainsi que la nation huronne-wendate ont uni leurs forces pour intenter une remarquable poursuite privée du gouvernement de l’Ontario en vertu de la Loi sur les évaluations environnementales pour n’avoir pas consulté les Premières Nations.

Le gouvernement a soutenu lors du procès que l’opinion d’un consultant en archéologie, qui était passé en auto près du site en compagnie d’une femme mohawk, constituait une consultation suffisante. Le juge a bien ri, mais il ne riait plus quand notre témoin clé, le commissaire à l’environnement Gord Miller, a déclaré au tribunal que le gouvernement de l’Ontario avait enfreint la loi. La condamnation que nous avons obtenue ensemble créait un précédent; le Globe and Mail a dit de cette affaire que c’était une victoire marquante pour le peuple huron-wendat et les droits des Premières Nations au Canada.

Les Hurons-Wendats et leur héritage étaient enfin légalement reconnus en Ontario.

Ce qui a suivi, c’est un raz-de-marée d’avis aux Hurons-Wendats, signifiés en vertu de la Loi sur les évaluations environnementales, de nouveaux projets qui menaçaient des villages et des lieux de sépulture hurons-wendats à travers le sud de l’Ontario.

Les promoteurs et d’autres Premières Nations qui craignaient de perdre des terres et de l’autorité sur des sites autochtones ont lancé une contestation juridique du nouveau statut des Hurons-Wendat. La cause a obligé Heather, alors âgée de plus de 70 ans, à témoigner au nom de sa nation dans une autre cause historique, à Seaton, en Ontario. Heather et Luc Lainé avaient négocié avec le gouvernement de l’Ontario un accord de conservation du patrimoine décisif, qui allait assurer la protection de quatre importants sites hurons-wendats d’un seul développement urbain, un accord d’exploitation d’une importance capitale (jamais vu, ni avant ni depuis). Le tribunal était d’accord avec tout ce que Luc et Heather avaient fait et, qui plus est, que les Hurons-Wendats étaient les seuls habilités à conclure l’accord concernant leurs sites. C’était une nouvelle victoire, le tribunal ayant reconnu à l’unanimité l’intérêt légitime des Hurons-Wendats pour la documentation de leur patrimoine archéologique en Ontario.

Le 7 décembre 2005, l’Ontario Realty Corporation a remis à Heather Bastien un certificat attestant qu’un site wendat en Ontario porterait désormais le nom de la famille Bastien, soit le Site Sébastien, dans la ville de Pickering. Cet honneur a été conféré en remerciement pour l’importante contribution de Heather à la conservation et la protection des sites et des ossuaires trouvés partout en Ontario.

Après la cérémonie, les médias ont cité Jim Butticci, porte-parole de l’Ontario Realty Corporation (ORC), qui avait dit : « Nous sommes d’avis que c’est un événement important dans la relation continue que l’ORC établit avec la communauté des Premières Nations. Le fait même que nous l’ayons nommé Sébastien est très significatif » [traduction].

La désignation de sites autochtones du nom d’archéologues, de propriétaires de terrains ou de presque n’importe quoi était une tradition de longue date en Ontario, jusqu’à ce que Heather et Luc y mettent fin. Les lieux de sépulture et les sites de villages portaient généralement des noms comme « Seed-Barker », « Milroy », « Teston Road » ou « Park » (d’après un parc à roulottes avoisinant). Heather s’est fait une mission d’attribuer respectueusement de nouveaux noms à des sites autochtones anciens et nouveaux.

Le jeudi 28 mars 2013, à Wendake, au Québec, on remettait à Mme Heather Bastien la Médaille du jubilé de diamant de la reine Élizabeth II. La médaille lui était présentée par l’Association nationale des anciens combattants autochtones pour le travail de commémoration de sites culturels patrimoniaux hurons-wendats qu’elle avait fait en les renommant d’après des anciens combattants hurons-wendats, comme Marcel Bastien et Fernand Lainé, qui avaient été si mesquinement traités à leur retour de la guerre.

Mais la plus grande victoire de Heather et Luc est peut-être la préservation de Skandatut, avec le rapatriement et la réinhumation de 2 000 squelettes hurons-wendats dans un ossuaire à Vaughan (Ontario), à proximité. Skandatut est le site d’un très grand village du 15e siècle dans la ceinture de verdure de l’Ontario qui aurait servi à une époque de capitale huronne-wendate. Un promoteur demandait un permis d’exploitation afin de détruire le site pour faire place à de nouvelles maisons et avait entrepris l’excavation du site.

Une autre poursuite en justice a eu lieu, ainsi qu’une incroyable campagne de sensibilisation et d’éducation du public dirigée par Heather, Luc et Environmental Defence. En fin de compte, le chef national Shawn Atleo de l’Assemblée des Premières Nations a écrit au premier ministre Dalton McGuinty, disant que Skandatut était un site historique et archéologique d’une grande importance internationale et en demandant la préservation au nom de tous les peuples des Premières Nations.

Le premier ministre l’a entendu, il a donné un ordre de cessation des travaux sans précédent en vertu de la Loi sur le patrimoine de l’Ontario. Heather et Luc sont allés à Toronto de très nombreuses fois dans le cadre d’une négociation dirigée par la province, dont le point culminant fut la création d’un parc de 10 acres, au cœur duquel se trouve Skandatut.

À cette époque de l’histoire de l’Ontario, les lieux de sépulture autochtones étaient systématiquement déterrés, sans consentement, à des fins d’études ou pour faire place à des projets de développement. La Loi sur les cimetières de l’Ontario n’exigeait pas, lorsqu’un lieu de sépulture était découvert, qu’un avis soit donné aux descendants légitimes, c’est-à-dire la nation autochtone la plus étroitement apparentée sur le plan culturel, mais plutôt que la Première Nation la plus proche (sur le plan géographique) en soit avisée. En août 2005, par exemple, lorsque les travaux d’un chantier routier ont ouvert un ossuaire sur le chemin Teston, à Vaughan, le gouvernement a fait appel à un représentant de la nation Anishnawbe pour diriger la réinhumation. Pendant des décennies, personne ne s’était occupé des sépultures des Hurons-Wendats. Heather et Luc ont entrepris de modifier les lois sur les lieux de sépulture autochtones et l’appartenance culturelle.

Ils ont été confrontés à leur plus grand défi lorsqu’ils ont appris que l’Université de Toronto entreposait depuis longtemps (sur la rue Huron, imaginez) des milliers d’ossements que des archéologues avaient trouvés dans des ossuaires partout en Ontario. Les restes de près de deux mille ancêtres hurons-wendats étaient entreposés, tout emmêlés par type d’ossements, dans des boîtes de rangement de documents portant des mentions comme « crânes », « fémurs », « dents », etc., griffonnées sur les côtés des boîtes.

Quand Heather est entrée pour la première fois dans l’aire d’entreposage, l’accablement s’est emparé d’elle. Pour aggraver les choses, l’Université de Toronto a commencé par revendiquer la propriété des ossements, maintenant qu’elle avait le droit de continuer à faire des expériences scientifiques sans consentement. Une nouvelle poursuite judiciaire a été engagée, avec Heather et Luc à la barre pour les Hurons-Wendats. Avec une persévérance, une patience et une conviction irrésistibles, ils sont arrivés graduellement à persuader l’Université de Toronto et la Fiducie du patrimoine ontarien. Un site a été trouvé pour la réinhumation des ossements sur la rive opposée à Skandatut de la rivière Humber, le long du sentier « Toronto Carrying Place Trail » [chemin de portage de Toronto], maintenant appelé Ossuaire Thonnakona.

En mai 2012, dans le but de finaliser l’accord de réinhumation Thonnakona, Heather et une délégation de la nation huronne-wendate se sont rendus à Miami, en Oklahoma, pour conclure un accord sur les sites ancestraux avec la Première Nation des Wyandottes, séparée de celle des Wendats en 1650.

Un jour de septembre 2013, sous un ciel ensoleillé, les restes des ancêtres ont été portés en terre dans une cérémonie qui a duré toute la journée. L’Ossuaire Thonnakona et le Skandatut protégé depuis peu seraient pour toujours liés et protégés dans le premier paysage réservé du patrimoine culturel de l’Ontario.

Lorsqu’on lui a demandé ce que signifiait pour elle la préservation de Skandatut et de l’ossuaire, Heather a répondu en remerciant la province de l’Ontario :

« Nous avons créé un paysage du patrimoine culturel préservé en permanence dans la ceinture de verdure. La préservation de Skandatut, notre ancienne capitale et cimetière, est un legs considérable pour toutes les nations. » [traduction]

Dans le cadre de cet héritage, Heather et Luc ont déterminé qu’il était prioritaire de mettre un terme à des décennies d’indifférence et d’hostilité à propos de sites anciens entre les trois Premières Nations fondatrices de l’Ontario. Heather, Luc et l’équipe juridique ont assisté à plusieurs assemblées générales annuelles de l’Assemblée des Premières Nations, où des réunions entre les Hurons-Wendats, les Haudenosaunees et les Anishnawbes ont abouti à la signature d’un protocole d’entente pour la création du Cercle des Premières Nations fondatrices, indiquant clairement que, lorsqu’un village ou un lieu de sépulture est menacé, les droits et les responsabilités sont cédés à la Première Nation la plus proche parente sur le plan culturel.

Il y a encore un dernier projet à signaler. En 2010, Heather et Luc ont entrepris une collaboration avec Yap Films, la chaîne de télévision History et la firme de consultants en archéologie ASI pour la production d’un film au sujet d’un artefact particulièrement remarquable trouvé sur le site d’un village du 16e siècle, à Stouffville, en Ontario, parfois appelé le « Manhattan » des sites de villages hurons-wendats. L’excavation du site Mantle a révélé la présence d’un morceau d’un outil de fer basque, qui avait été curieusement enterré dans une maison longue antérieure au contact direct avec des Européens dans la région des lacs Ontario et Érié. Le film qui en est résulté, intitulé « Curse of the Axe » [la malédiction de la hache], mettait en vedette Luc et Heather qui animaient l’expérience de se retrouver face à face avec les ancêtres. Le film a été vu maintenant par plus de trois millions de personnes autour du monde, prolongeant d’autant la portée des Hurons-Wendats dans la conscience nationale et internationale.

Heather a non seulement fait changer les opinions au sujet des droits des Autochtones, elle a aussi fait changer la loi de quatre manières différentes. Premièrement, la consultation des Premières Nations directement concernées est maintenant obligatoire en vertu de la Loi sur les évaluations environnementales. Deuxièmement, la Loi sur les cimetières a été reformulée pour que la Première Nation la plus rapprochée sur le plan culturel soit avisée lorsqu’un lieu de sépulture est perturbé. Troisièmement, en vertu de la Loi sur l’aménagement du territoire de l’Ontario, la politique 2.1.6 de la Déclaration de principes provinciale dit maintenant que « les paysages du patrimoine culturel d’importance sont conservés ». Enfin, les « Normes et directives à l’intention des archéologues-conseils » sous le régime de la Loi sur le patrimoine de l’Ontario exigent maintenant la consultation des Premières Nations avant que l’excavation d’un site soit autorisée.

Ces réformes législatives extraordinaires résultent d’une collaboration dirigée par Heather et Luc et leurs nombreux amis en Ontario, notamment le cabinet d’avocats Donnelly Law, l’organisme Environmental Defence, la firme de consultants en archéologie Archaeological Services Inc., Jacques Huot, Andrew Stewart, Ph. D., le cabinet d’avocats Gilbert’s LLP, des organisations de défense des droits des femmes et des Autochtones. En tout, Heather et Luc ont enrôlé près de 100 professionnels, avocats, archéologues, scientifiques, médias et politiciens dans leur quête de justice pour le peuple huron-wendat.

Lorsque Heather a finalement « pris sa retraite » en tant qu’agent de liaison du patrimoine culturel huron-wendat, en 2013, elle avait participé à l’évolution de 53 dossiers au cours d’une douzaine d’années de défense et de promotion des droits et des intérêts des Hurons-Wendats, presque entièrement à titre bénévole.

Elle serait très fâchée contre moi si je vous donnais l’impression que son travail est terminé. Les ossements de quatre-vingt-dix-sept ancêtres hurons-wendats servent à des expériences à l’Université d’État de la Louisiane et le conseiller juridique de l’université refuse de les rendre. Ces ossements ont été volés dans un ossuaire à Oshawa, en Ontario.

Le site Web de la ville de Toronto dit toujours que notre région était occupée par des Iroquoiens, au lieu de préciser qu’il s’agit du fier peuple huron-wendat. Cette formulation irritait Heather et elle disait, pour me taquiner, « essaie donc d’appeler un Irlandais mangeur de patates ».

Enfin, comme l’exige la loi, des avis de projets qui menacent des sites de Premières Nations sont donnés à des populations locales, aux autorités en matière de conservation, à des conseils scolaires, à Hydro Ontario, aux services publics de gaz et d’électricité, au câblodistributeur Rogers et à d’autres fournisseurs d’infrastructures de communication, et la liste continue.

Le règlement exige seulement d’aviser la Nation huronne-wendate d’un projet qui menace vos sites ancestraux, et je cite le règlement : « si la première nation se trouve sur une réserve dont une partie est située dans un rayon d’un kilomètre de la zone visée par le plan de lotissement proposé ». Pour les projets réalisés en Ontario, cela veut dire que l’avis n’est JAMAIS donné aux Hurons-Wendats. Cette disposition est profondément raciste et insultante pour les Premières Nations et doit être corrigée.

Maintenant, j’entends la voix de Heather : « Assez parlé de moi, David, dis-leur seulement que le travail est loin d’être terminé ».

Alors, je lui répondrai : « C’est vrai, Heather, mais toi et Luc avez remis les Hurons-Wendats sur la carte dans votre territoire traditionnel. Les droits et les responsabilités des Hurons-Wendats ont été rétablis en ton nom; ton travail est terminé ».

Merci, Heather.

R.I.P. Heather Bastien, 1932-2017

Allocution faite à : l’église Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, Wendake (Québec) Par : David Donnelly, M.E.S. LL.B. Date : 4 février 2017

Eulogy: Heather Bastien

** Eulogy ** Heather Bastien’s Legacy in the Traditional Territory of the Huron-Wendat

A great friend and Elder to all of us, Mme Heather Bastien, passed away last week. Canada lost one of its greatest Aboriginal cultural heritage champions.

Together with Luc Laine, legal counsel and a few dedicated archaeologists, Heather’s efforts resulted in the protection of dozens of significant Huron-Wendat villages and burials, after decades of neglect and destruction by urban development in southern Ontario, the Traditional Territory of the Huron-Wendat.

In addition, four laws in the province of Ontario were reformed as a direct result of her campaigning for indigenous rights and recognition.

After retiring in her late 60’s, Heather traveled with her sisters to Midland, Ontario in 1999 to visit the ancestral homeland of her Nation, the Huron-Wendat. She had never been to Ontario. Her curiosity was piqued by a Parks Canada pamphlet at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons declaring the Hurons “extinct”.

What few people knew then was that when the Huron-Wendat people were driven from southern Ontario in 1650, they left behind a rich legacy of villages, burials, sacred sites, place-names and artifacts. As development exploded across their former territory, approximately 8,000 Aboriginal culture heritage sites were destroyed, 2,000 were significant. Most of these sites were Huron-Wendat.

In 2001, all that changed. Heather was invited to a ceremony by the Rouge River, once a thriving Huron-Wendat community, where we were first introduced.

The Ontario Realty Corporation (a government agency) had given a piece of land to the Catholic Cemeteries Board to allow them to build a 50,000-plot cemetery adjacent to a significant 14th century Wendat village, known as the “Milroy Site”. Heather wanted to know why the Huron-Wendat weren’t consulted, and how so much digging could possibly avoid the desecration of the nearby but undiscovered mass burial or “ossuary” of her ancestors?

Environmental Defence, Save the Rouge and the Huron-Wendat Nation came together to launch a remarkable private prosecution of the Ontario Government for failing to consult First Nations under the Environmental Assessment Act (“EA Act”)

At trial, the government argued an archaeological consultant driving a Mohawk woman by the site was sufficient consultation. The Judge laughed at that one, but didn't laugh when our star witness, Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller, told the court the Ontario government had broken the law.? Together, we obtained a precedent-setting conviction, and the case was written up in the Globe and Mail as a “landmark victory” for the Huron-Wendat people and First Nations rights in Canada.

Finally, the Huron-Wendat and their legacy was legally recognized in Ontario.

What followed was a tidal wave of notices to the Huron-Wendat under the EA Act of new projects that threatened Huron-Wendat villages and burials all across southern Ontario.

A court challenge of the new status of the Huron-Wendat was launched by developers and other First Nations, fearful of a loss of land and authority over Aboriginal sites. The case forced Heather, by now well into her 70s, to testify on behalf of her Nation in another landmark case in Seaton, Ontario. Heather and Luc Laine had negotiated a breakthrough heritage conservation agreement with the government of Ontario that would see four significant Huron-Wendat sites protected from a single urban development, a momentous development agreement (not seen before or since). The court agreed with everything Luc and Heather had done, and further that the Huron-Wendat had the sole authority to make the agreement concerning their sites. Another victory was secured in which the court unanimously recognized the Huron-Wendat interest in their archaeological record in Ontario.

On December 7th, 2005, the Ontario Realty Corporation remitted to Heather Bastien a certificate certifying that a Wendat Site in Ontario would, from now on, be named for the Bastien Family, that is the Sébastien Site in the City of Pickering. This honour was given as a word of thanks for her great contribution to the conservation/protection of sites and ossuaries found across Ontario. After the ceremony, the media quoted ORC spokesman Jim Butticci, who said, "We feel this was an important event in the ongoing relationship ORC is building with the First Nations community. The very fact we named it Sebastien is very significant”. The naming of Aboriginal sites after archaeologists, landowners or almost anything was a long-standing tradition in Ontario, until Heather and Luc put a stop to it. Burials and village sites commonly had names such as “Seed-Barker”, “Milroy”, “Teston Road” or “Park” (named after a nearby trailer park). Heather made it her personal mission to respectfully re-name new and old Aboriginal sites.

On Thursday March 28, 2013, Mme Heather Bastien received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in Wendake, Quebec. The Medal was presented by the National Aboriginal Veterans Association for Heather's work in commemorating ancient Huron-Wendat cultural heritage sites by re-naming them after Huron-Wendat veterans, such as Marcel Bastien and Fernand Laine, who had been treated so shabbily upon their return from war.

Perhaps Heather and Luc’s greatest victory was the preservation of Skandatut and the repatriation and re-burial of 2,000 Huron-Wendat skeletons at a nearby ossuary in Vaughan Ontario. Skandatut is a very large, 15th century village site in Ontario’s Greenbelt that would have served at one point as the Huron-Wendat capital. A developer sought a development permit to destroy the site to make way for new homes, and had begun to dig up the site.

What followed was another court case, and an incredible public education and awareness campaign led by Heather, Luc and Environmental Defence. Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo ultimately wrote Premier Dalton McGuinty, calling Skandatut an “internationally significant site of high historical and archaeological significance”, and asked for its preservation in the name of all First Nations people.

The Premier listened, issuing an unprecedented “Stop Work Order” under the Ontario Heritage Act. Heather and Luc traveled to Toronto many, many times as part of a provincially-led negotiation that culminated in the successful creation of a 10-acre park, with Skandatut at its heart.

At this time in Ontario history, Aboriginal burial sites were routinely dug up without consent for academic purposes, or to make way for development. The Ontario Cemeteries Act did not require notice to the rightful descendants when a burial was discovered i.e. the most closely culturally affiliated Nation, but rather allowed notice to the “closest geographic” First Nation. For example, in August 2005 when a roadwork crew tore open a 400-person Huron-Wendat ossuary on Teston Road in Vaughan, the government called in an Anishnawbe person to conduct the re-burial. For decades, no one cared about Huron-Wendat burials. Heather and Luc set about changing the laws on Aboriginal burials and cultural affiliation.

They met their greatest challenge upon learning the University of Toronto had been storing (on Huron Street, if you can imagine) thousands of bones dug up by archaeologists from Huron-Wendat ossuaries across Ontario. Nearly two thousand Huron-Wendat ancestors were stored in banker’s boxes, all jumbled together by bone type, with titles like “skulls”, “femurs”, “teeth”, etc. scribbled on the sides of the boxes.

When Heather first entered the storage area, her heart sank. To make matters worse, at first the University of Toronto claimed ownership over the bones, and maintained a right to continue to perform scientific experiments without consent. Another court case was initiated, with Heather and Luc in the lead for the Huron-Wendat. Gradually, with overwhelming perseverance, patience and conviction, both the University of Toronto and the Ontario Heritage Trust were won over. A site was found for the re-burial across the Humber River from Skandatut, along the Carrying Place Trail, which is now known as the Thonnakona Ossuary.

In May 2012, in order to finalize the Thonnakona burial agreement, Heather and the Huron-Wendat Nation travelled to Miami, Oklahoma to reach an accord over ancestral sites with the Wyandotte First Nation, separated from the Wendat in 1650.

One day in September, 2013 under a sunny sky, the ancestors’ remains were laid to rest in a day-long ceremony. The Thonnakona Ossuary and the newly protected Skandatut would be forever linked and protected in Ontario’s first dedicated cultural heritage landscape.

When she was asked what preserving Skandatut and the ossuary meant to her, she said in giving thanks to the Province of Ontario:

“We created a permanently protected cultural heritage landscape in the Greenbelt. Preserving Skandatut, our ancient capital and burial ground, is a great legacy for all Nations."

As part of this legacy, Heather and Luc made it a priority to stop decades of indifference and hostility over ancient sites between Ontario’s three Founding First Nations. Heather, Luc and her legal team travelled to several Assembly of First Nations Annual General Assemblies, where meetings between the Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee and Anishnawbe eventually led to a Memorandum of Understanding being signed to create the “Founding First Nations’ Circle” clearly ceding rights and responsibilities to the “closest culturally effected First Nation”, whenever a village or burial is threatened.

There is one final project of note. In 2010, Heather and Luc began a collaboration with Yap Films, History Television and ASI to produce a film about a particularly unique artifact found at a 16th century village site in Stouffville, Ontario, sometime referred to as the “Manhattan” of Huron-Wendat village sites. The Mantle site excavation yielded a piece of a Basque iron tool that was curiously buried in a long-house that pre-dated direct contact with Europeans in the lower Great Lakes. The resulting film, “Curse of the Axe,” featured Luc and Heather as they animated the experience of coming face-to-face with the ancestors. The film has now been viewed by more than three million people around the world, further extending the reach of the Huron-Wendat into the national and international consciousness.

Heather did not just change people’s minds about aboriginal rights, she also changed the law in four different ways. First, consultation with directly affected First Nations is now mandatory under the Environmental Assessment Act. Second, the Cemeteries Act was re-written so that the “most closely culturally affiliated” First Nation is notified whenever a burial is disturbed. Third, under Ontario’s Planning Act, Policy 2.1.6 of the Provincial Policy Statement now says “Significant cultural heritage landscapes shall be conserved.” Finally, the “Standards and Guidelines for Consultant Archaeologists” under the Ontario Heritage Act now requires consultation with First Nations before a site can be excavated.

This extraordinary record of law reform was a collaboration led by Heather and Luc, and their many friends in Ontario, including Donnelly Law, Environmental Defence, Archaeological Services Inc., Jacques Huot, Dr. Andrew Stewart, Gilbert’s LLP, a number of women’s and Aboriginal rights organizations and many others. In all, Heather and Luc enlisted close to 100 professionals, lawyers, archaeologists, scientists, media, and politicians in their pursuit of justice for the Huron-Wendat people.

Heather was finally “retired” as the Huron-Wendat Cultural Heritage Liaison in 2013. In her dozen years of advocacy, she was involved in 53 files, serving almost entirely as a volunteer.

She would be very cross with me if I left you with the impression her work is done. Ninety-seven ancient Huron-Wendat ancestors’ bones are being experimented upon at Louisiana State University, and the university legal counsel is refusing to hand them back. The bones were stolen from an ossuary in Oshawa, Ontario.

The City of Toronto website still says our region was occupied by “Iroquoian people”, instead of the proud Huron-Wendat people. That phrase bothered Heather, and she used to tease me, “try calling an Irishman ‘potato eater’”.

Finally, Notice of projects that threaten First Nation’s sites are given, as required by law, to local residents, conservation authorities, school boards, Ontario Hydro, gas and electric utilities, Rogers Cable and other telecommunication infrastructure providers, and the list goes on.

You must only notify the Huron-Wendat Nation of a project that threatens your sites if, and I quote the Regulation, “The First Nation is located on a reserve any part of which is within one kilometre of the area covered by the proposed plan of subdivision.” For projects in Ontario, this means Notice is NEVER given to the Huron-Wendat. This is profoundly racist and an insult to First Nations that needs to be fixed.

Now I hear Heather’s voice, “That’s enough about me David, just tell them our work is far from done”.

And so I will answer, “That’s true Heather, but you and Luc put the Huron-Wendat back on the map in your Traditional Territory. Huron-Wendat rights and responsibilities have been restored in your name, your work is done”.

Merci, Heather.

RIP Heather Bastien, 1932-2017

Delivered at: Notre-Dame-de-Lorette Church, Wendake PQ Delivered by: David Donnelly, MES LLB Date: February 4, 2017

First Nation and Residents United in Opposition to Development

September 13, 2016 marked Day 1 of a four-week hearing at the Ontario Municipal Board. Donnelly Law represents Curve Lake First Nation and the Friends of the Fraser Wetlands Inc. ("FFW"). Curve Lake First Nation and FFW are united in their opposition to the proposed development on the 200+ hectare property near Burleigh Falls, which is connected to the Teaching Rocks (Petroglyphs Provincial Park), an international sacred site.

A first: the OMB will move on to the Curve Lake First Nation for evidence from Elders and a professor of cultural landscapes/archaeology from Trent University. Donnelly Law successfully argued a motion to move the hearing on-reserve, so those most impacted by the Aboriginal cultural heritage issues can attend and give evidence.

The protection of an Aboriginal cultural heritage landscape and natural is at stake.  The OMB will hear from Curve Lake First Nation Elders, ecologists, First Nation botanist, land use planners, a professor of archaeology and others over the 19-day hearing.  The Township of North Kawartha is opposed to the application, and will call its land use planner. Read about the issues for the hearing here.

Week 1 of Burl's Creek OMB hearing wraps up

Despite assurances and best intentions, the Ontario Municipal Board ("OMB") hearing into the temporary zoning by-law proposed by Burl's Creek Event Grounds ended its first week of testimony far away from a resolution. Darren Vella, founder of Innovative Planning Services and the land-use planner retained by Burl's Creek, resumed his testimony to close out the Burl's Creek case. His testimony was designed to tie together the evidence given by the proponent's other expert witnesses.

It was assumed Vella would be cross-examined Friday as well, bringing a close to the Burl's Creek case. However, given the length of the Vella's testimony and the depth of the information he was presenting, the session ended while he was still in chief. Given Vella's prior commitments outside of the country next week, accommodating a cross-examination was not going to be simple.

“We keep adding time,” Chair Richard Makuch said. “When I saw this (as) three days ... I'm not pointing the finger at anybody; I'm just saying it was totally unrealistic.”

“I'm the only one in the room who can say 'I agree with you' with a straight face,” Donnelly added.

Read the news coverage here.

Participants tell OMB how they feel about Burl's Creek

Numerous stakeholders got their chance to officially tell the Ontario Municipal Board ("OMB") just how they feel about the proposed temporary use by-law for Burl's Creek Event Grounds Wednesday night. Participant statements were heard by the board at the conclusion of a marathon session Wednesday, which lasted approximately 12 hours, including lunch and dinner breaks.

Read the news coverage here.

Day 3: First Nation call for more studies of Burl's Creek surfaces at OMB hearing

On the third day of the Ontario Municipal Board ("OMB") hearing regarding the Burl's Creek Event Grounds arguments surrounding archaeological issues and First Nation concerns continued. The letters from the Huron-Wendat and the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport were brought up again Thursday morning, as Paul Racher, the expert archaeologist for the Montagnais Métis First Nation, testified in front of the board.

During cross-examination, Save Oro and West Oro Ratepayers' Association lawyer David Donnelly led Racher through the letters, asking his professional opinion on their contents.

"The potential for disturbance is a risk the nation simply cannot take," Donnelly read from the letter. "Sir, is it clear to you, an archaeologist, that the Huron-Wendat Nation is withholding consent for the temporary use by-law to proceed before the proper archaeological assessments occur?"

"Absolutely," Racher replied.

The concern of the Huron-Wendat, Montagnais Métis and other like-minded individuals, such as Racher, is the compaction of the soil from camping and parking could damage any artifacts found underground, particularly in such a rich archaeological area as Oro-Medonte Township. Regardless, Racher said, most lands in the province are presumed to house archaeological artifacts until proven otherwise.

Read the news coverage here.

Land use, First Nation concerns on display during Day 2 of Burl's Creek OMB hearing

On the second day of the Ontario Municipal Board ("OMB") hearing regarding the Burl's Creek Event Grounds archaeological issues and First Nations concerns were explored by Chief Keith Doxsee representing the Montagnais Metis First Nation, and David Donnelly, counsel for SaveOro and West Oro Ratepayers' Association ("WORA"). Under cross-examination, Jamie Lemon, who prepared a Stage 1 archeological assessment for Burl's Creek, said both the Huron-Wendat Nation and Ministry of Tourism, Sport and Culture wrote in separate letters dated May 19 saying the temporary zoning by-law should not go forward until after a Stage 2 assessment is complete.

Mr. Dave Hogson, an agrologist for Burl's Creek, and Mr. Gord Miller, former Environmental Commissioner for Ontario and econologist for SaveOro and WORA, also took the stand.

A significant portion of David Donnelly's cross-examination of Hodgson was based on the latter's change of opinion regarding the type of buffer required via a minimum distance separation zone. Hodgson had previously considered a Type A buffer, which is substantially larger than a Type B buffer. Hodgson's opinion changed because he didn't consider the events occurring on the subject lands as “high intensity” recreational use.

Miller disagreed with Hodgson's classification.  “The density is far in excess of what you see in any normal campground situation,” Miller said. “All this is on the highest impact of camping, as it were. This is hardly camping in a normal sense of the word. This is an intensive use of the land more akin to a box store parking lot than camping.

Read the news coverage here.

Significant Changes for Aboriginal Interests in Ontario's Provincial Policy Statement, 2014

On February 24, 2014, the Ontario Government released the Provincial Policy Statement, 2014 (“PPS 2014”), not previously updated since 2005.  The PPS 2014 is Ontario’s foundational land use planning policy:  all decisions affecting land use planning decisions in Ontario “shall be consistent” with the PPS.   Now, for the first time, the PPS includes references to Aboriginal people.  This is a watershed inclusion that removes persistent flouting of the constitutional duty to consult with Aboriginal communities in the Planning Act.  Donnelly Law had litigated and advocated on behalf of its former client, the Huron-Wendat Nation, for this inclusion regarding two critical issues:  notice and consultation with Aboriginal communities, and protection of significant Aboriginal cultural heritage sites.

 The key highlight from the PPS 2014 is the Province finally requires consultation with Aboriginal communities in Ontario in section 4.3:

 “This Provincial Policy Statement shall be implemented in a manner that is consistent with the recognition and affirmation of existing Aboriginal and treaty rights in section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982.”

 The Planning Act itself does not formally require consultation with Aboriginal communities.  This single sentence means that planning authorities and the Ontario Municipal Board will be required as of April 30, 2014 to implement the PPS in a manner consistent with Canada’s Constitution.  In other words, there is finally a mandatory requirement to consult and accommodate Aboriginal interests in land use planning decisions.  This is consistent with David Donnelly’s (then at Gilberts LLP) submissions to the Province concerning environmental assessment, dating back to the 2003 private prosecution known as Milroy.  (Read this decision here.) 

 The second highlight for Aboriginal rights in the 2014 PPS is section 2.6.5:

 “Planning authorities shall consider the interests of Aboriginal communities in conserving cultural heritage and archaeological resources.”

 The 2014 PPS adopts Donnelly Law’s 2010 and 2012 key recommendations for consultation with Aboriginal communities and will lead to more sites protected.  Donnelly Law made submissions to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (“MMAH”) in 2012 that the Province’s draft proposed section 2.6.5 be strengthened from the then merely supportive language of “should consider” to the mandatory “shall consider”.  This is a critical change.  As reported by Justice Linden in the Report of the Ipperwash Inquiry, approximately 2,000 significant Aboriginal sites were destroyed by development in Southern Ontario between 1951 and 1991.  The PPS 2014 should help ensure this unbelievable level of destruction is not repeated.

Other key highlights on Aboriginal Rights in the PPS 2014:

• The PPS 2014 recognizes for the first time the importance of consulting with Aboriginal communities.  (See Part IV, Vision for Ontario’s Land Use Planning System: The Province recognizes the importance of consulting with Aboriginal communities on planning matters that may affect their rights and interests.)
• The PPS 2014 supports coordination of planning matters with Aboriginal communities.  (See Section 1.2, Coordination:  1.2.2 Planning authorities are encouraged to coordinate planning matters with Aboriginal communities.)
• The PPS 2014 recognizes that built heritage resources and cultural heritage landscapes include Aboriginal resources and landscapes.  (See section 6.0, Definition.  “Built heritage resource”: Built heritage resource: means a building, structure, monument, installation or any manufactured remnant that contributes to a property’s cultural heritage value or interest as identified by a community, including an Aboriginal community; and “Cultural heritage landscape”: Cultural heritage landscape: means a defined geographical area that may have been modified by human activity and is identified as having cultural heritage value or interest by a community, including an Aboriginal community.)

In the past, municipalities did not have to undertake any Aboriginal consultation because the Province had not “expressly or impliedly” delegated procedural aspects of the duty to consult, beyond the arguably unconstitutional notice provisions in three regulations under the Planning Act.  Those regulations require only consultation with Aboriginal communities within one kilometre of a proposed development site – regardless of cultural affiliation.  (See s. 5(9)(19) of O. Reg. 545-06.)

 David Donnelly and Donnelly Law has been advocating for changes to Ontario’s planning policies and law to recognize Aboriginal interests and rights for over a decade.  This work focused two key outcomes, described below.

  1. Proper Notice and Consultation

 There was no requirement in the Planning Act for consultation with Aboriginal communities, even if land use planning decisions may impact on Aboriginal rights, unless an Aboriginal community lived within one kilometre of the proposed development. 

 This situation is similar to past environmental assessment policy that was challenged by David Donnelly, then at Gilbert’s LLP, in the Milroy Prosecution.  In this private prosecution against Ontario Realty Corporation (“ORC”), the predecessor to Infrastructure Ontario, the Ontario Court of Justice found ORC guilty of failing to conduct a proper environmental assessment before disposing of property with ancestral Wendat sites, since ORC did not consult with Aboriginal people.  As a result of this litigation, the Ministry of the Environment changed the procedure on its Municipal Class Environmental Assessments to require consultation with Aboriginal communities.   Further, in the proposed Seaton development, the subject lands of the environmental assessment, underwent an extensive consultation processes with impacted First Nations as a result of the Milroy decision.

 While policy under the environmental assessment process has changed, until the new 2014 PPS, the Province made no move to incorporate Aboriginal consultation into planning matters.  Donnelly Law challenged the constitutionality of Planning Act regulations that only require notice to First Nations within one kilometre of the proposed development project in an appeal of the York Region Official Plan.  York Region agreed to and undertook Aboriginal consultation to develop an Archaeological Management Plan and procedure for ensuring notice is received by potentially affected Aboriginal communities, regardless of proximity from a development proposal.  (Read our motion materials.)

   2. Protection of Significant Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes

 Thousands of Aboriginal heritage sites have been destroyed in Ontario due to development since the 1950s.  

 In 2005, David Donnelly represented the Founding First Nations Circle (“FFNC”) at the Ipperwash Inquiry, bringing submissions to Justine Linden for legal reform to protect Aboriginal cultural sites from destruction.  The FFNC sought involvement for First Nation descendants to be involved in challenging decisions to remove Aboriginal cultural heritage sites.

A recent example of the difficulty in protecting significant Aboriginal heritage sites is the Skandatut village site in Vaughan, Ontario.  In Vaughan, a private land developer tried several times to excavate the Skandatut site to make way for a new sub-division, without the consent or knowledge of the Huron-Wendat Nation.  Huron-Wendat Nation counsel in Ontario David Donnelly (Donnelly Law) prepared an injunction and proceeded to Ontario Court asking for a stop-work order for Skandatut and other Aboriginal cultural heritage sites.  The Ontario Minister of Culture intervened and exercised his discretion under the Ontario Heritage Act to issue his own Stop Work Order to temporarily preserve Skandatut.  The Minister also ordered mediation between the landowner, City of Vaughan and Huron-Wendat Nation.  After years of effort, mediation and court action, a settlement was reached by the City of Vaughan, the landowner and the Huron-Wendat Nation.  The Skandatut site comprises the archaeological remains of a large and heavily fortified, late sixteenth-century ancestral Huron-Wendat village. It represents the most recent in a series of related major Huron-Wendat villages located along the Humber River valley north of Woodbridge in the City of Vaughan.  In its time, Skandatut was at the centre of trade and diplomacy in the Great Lakes Region, its location and size made it the “capital” of central Ontario.  It housed upwards of 1,500 to 2,000 Huron-Wendat members in 40 to 50 longhouses.  Most importantly, Skandatut overlooks the former location of its burial grounds, the Thonnakonah Ossuary (formerly known as the Kleinburg Ossuary), located 500 metres west, that at one time contained the remains of 561 individuals who lived and died at Skandatut. 

  Advocacy regarding the Provincial Policy Statement

 Donnelly Law is pleased parts of its submissions on the PPS in both 2010 and 2012 have been included in the PPS 2014: 

• Explicit reference to s. 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982;
• Explicit reference to Aboriginal interests in cultural heritage and archeology in section 2.6; and
• Reference to Aboriginal interests and communities in the definitions for built heritage resources and cultural heritage landscapes.

Internationally Significant Skandatut Site Saved

New Cultural Heritage Landscape Park to Celebrate Nature and First Nations History June 6, 2012

Vaughan, ON – Vaughan City Council voted unanimously last night to accept a deal to save Skandatut, an internationally significant cultural heritage site in the Greenbelt, on the historic Hu

mber River in Vaughan, Ontario.

The 6 acre village site will be transferred to public ownership, and will be buffered from new development by a 2.5 acre park. The site is surrounded by a river valley and conservation land on three sides.

At the council debate, Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua saluted its importance to both residents and members of the Huron-Wendat Nation: “Nature is extremely important to know in all that it teaches us.  We cherish Skandatut just as much as you do.

“To all involved on behalf of the city I wish to express my warmest and sincerest gratitude.  This moment defines the best of what humanity has to offer—compassion and understanding.”

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo, political Chief to all of Canada’s 634 Nations, wrote to Premier McGuinty in 2010 calling it “rare” and “internationally significant.”

The site is located on a steep-sided promontory overlooking the Humber River and valley.  At its time of occupation in the sixteenth century, it was a large and heavily fortified Huron-Wendat village.  Located on the Carrying Place Trail, which was one of Ontario’s oldest and most important lines of trade, diplomacy and communication in the Great Lakes Region.  Given its location and size, it was likely the “capital” of southern Ontario.

Despite its iconic history, the site’s fate wasn’t always secure.  Less than two years ago, a private landowner was excavating to make way for development. The provincial government had to step in to temporarily preserve the archaeological site.

“This is a great moment for world heritage, to finally have protected this village site that straddled the world of life on the Great Lakes before and after the arrival of Europeans," said Luc Laine, a member of the Huron-Wendat Nation. “When we make the re-burial of our ancestors across the river, Skandatut will be linked again permanently with the ossuary to which it belonged."

Laine thanked the Mayor, Councillor Michael Di Biase, Councillor Deb Schulte and other members of Council for their wisdom and efforts.

When thousands of Huron-Wendat and other First Nations remains—which were illegally excavated—return to the site, the resulting park area will be one of the largest protected and sacred cultural heritage landscapes in Canada.

“Adding Skandatut to the list of the Greenbelt’s protected landscapes is a major accomplishment that will be celebrated long after we’re gone," said Dr. Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence.  He noted that adding the site to the Greenbelt has been a Ontario Greenbelt Alliance priority since 2007.

“Preserving Skandatut is a wonderful achievement that highlights the very best about Ontario’s commitment to truly sustainable development and respect for First Nations," said David Donnelly, who began acting for the Huron-Wendat on Skandatut back in 2004.

“For me, there is also a deep sense of relief that we’ve lived up to our reputation as a just society and that we didn’t lose another part of our past. Ontario heritage is more than just bricks and mortar," Donnelly added.

La Nation Huronne Wendat et l'Université de Toronto Signent un Protocole d'Entente Visant le Rapatriement d'Ossements Humains et d'Artéfacts Ancestraux Provenant de l'Ontario

Wendake, le 29 novembre 2011 — Le Grand Chef Konrad Sioui, au nom de la Nation Huronne­ Wendat a signé aujourd'hui, avec l'Université de Toronto, un protocole d'entente assurant le rapatriement de restes squelettiques humains et d'artéfacts provenant de sites archéologiques en Ontario.

Seated, L-R: Prof. Cheryl Regehr (Vice-Provost, Academic Programs), Mme. Heather Bastien (Chargée de projet), Grand Chief Konrad Sioui. Standing, L-R: Steve Moate (Legal Counsel, U of T); Prof. Meric Gertler (Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science); Prof. Amy Mullin (Dean of the University of Toronto Mississauga); M. Rolland R. Sioui (Elder), René Gros-Louis (Chief), Oney Maher (Elder),Daniel Proteau (elder), Gaetan Sioui (Chief), Yvon Gros-Louis (Elder), Prof. Susan Pfeiffer (Department of Anthropology), Luc Lainé (Chargée de project), David Donnelly (Donnelly Law).

«Au milieu du vingtième siècle, l'Université de Toronto a pris part à des fouilles sur des sites archéologiques du sud de l'Ontario dans lesquels des restes squelettiques humains ont été trouvés, exhumés et transportés ultimement à l'Université. II s'est avéré que plusieurs ossements et artéfacts proviennent des ancêtres de la Nation Huronne Wendat, qui ont occupé une vaste portion du sud de l'Ontario pendant plusieurs siècles. En raison de guerres européennes et d'épidémies, la Nation Huronne Wendat a été forcée de quitter la partie sud de son territoire ancestral et de retourner plus haut sur la partie nord de son territoire national sur les rives de leur fleuve essentiel, le Saint-Laurent, près de Stadaconé (Ville de Québec) à la Seigneurie de Sillery où Wendake est maintenant situé. Les Hurons Wendat, les archéologues et les historiens ont identifié et documenté des centaines de sites Hurons Wendat en Ontario et au Québec, à travers le grand Wendake. Des douzaines de vastes villages agricoles cosmopolites semi-permanents (occupés par des milliers de gens) et leurs sites d'enterrements attenants ont été découverts, représentant un riche patrimoine culturel» a déclaré le Grand Chef Sioui.

L'Université de Toronto a complété en grande partie un inventaire et l'analyse reste à être complétée. La Nation Huronne Wendat recherche un rapatriement total des restes humains au cours de l'été de 2012 et les parties s'adjoindront la coopération de la Fiducie du Patrimoine ontarien et du Gouvernement de l'Ontario en ce qui a trait à toute composante du projet.

Le professeur Cheryl Regher, en présence de ses collègues de l'Université de Toronto et de Mississauga, a déclaré que la signature de cette entente historique marque une étape importante dans une nouvelle relation entre leurs institutions et la Nation huronne-wendat. Une première au Canada qui, selon elle, mérite d'être connue a l'échelle internationale.

Le Conseil de la Nation huronne-wendat salue le travail acharné du Chef Gaëtan Sioui, responsable du dossier, de Me David Donnelly, de monsieur Luc Laine et de madame Heather Bastien grâce à qui ce protocole a été réalisé. Le Conseil de la Nation huronne-wendat prévoit le ré-enterrement des restes de ces milliers de nos ancêtres au mois de juillet 2012, au même moment ou aura lieu la rencontre annuelle des Chefs de l'Assemblée des Premières Nations du Canada à Toronto.

Renseignements :

Melanie Vincent (418) 580-4442

___________________________________________________

The University of Toronto signs a Memorandum of Understanding with the Huron-Wendat Nation

The University of Toronto has signed a Memorandum of Understanding allowing for the repatriation of remains and artifacts to the Huron Wendat Nation.  This MoU was signed at a ceremony in Wendake, near Quebec City on No. 29.

The University of Toronto sits on land that was the home of the Huron Wendat until the late 17th century.  Primarily during the middle part of the last century, faculty, staff and students of the University participated in archaeological excavations of many sites in southern Ontario, sites that were the homes of Huron Wendat ancestors.  As a result, today the university holds many remains and artifacts gathered from those locations.

While the approaches followed in those excavations conformed with the attitudes of academia and society at the time, those attitudes have changed. The Memorandum of Understanding allows for the repatriation of those remains and artifacts in a culturally and spiritually appropriate way as determined by the Huron Wendat people.  The actual transfer of the remains will occur when the Huron Wendat Nation has secured a final resting place for the remains and artifacts, but the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding is an important step in the process. The Memorandum of Understanding further establishes a process of cooperation between the University of Toronto and the Huron-Wendat Nation for the continued development of knowledge regarding the history of their people. The university is grateful to the Huron-Wendat Nation for its commitment to preservation of knowledge and further research.

The agreement was signed on behalf of the university by Professor Cheryl Regehr, vice-provost (academic programs) and by Grand Chief Konrad Sioui, on behalf of the Huron Wendat Nation.  Also present at the signing were Professor Meric Gertler, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science; Professor Amy Mullin, dean of the University of Toronto Mississauga, Professor Susan Pfeiffer of the Department of Anthropologyand Steve Moate, legal counsel to the university.

UofT News: http://www.news.toronto.edu/university-toronto-signs-memorandum-understanding-huron-wendat-nation

Humber Path honours First Nations' history

Plaques along the 'Shared Path' recognize role of native peoples

Tamara Shephard, InsideToronto.com

Toronto's newest Discovery Walk honours the extensive history of First Nations on the Humber River.

The Shared Path project weaves for 10 kilometres through the Humber River Valley and consists of 13 historical nodes that describe Canada's early history as it happened along the banks of the Humber River.

Cultural heritage and Humber River history recognize the historic presence of First Nations on the Humber, who were later followed by the French and the British.

La Societe d'histoire de Toronto initiated the project undertaken in partnership with Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) and the City of Toronto.

"We're trying to tell the story of how important the Humber River was to Canada's national development," said TRCA Humber River project manager Susan Robertson, who is also the Shared Path project manager.

"As a conservation authority, we try to protect our rivers and celebrate them. It's not only a watershed matter. Rivers matter today as much as they did 200 years ago when they were highways into the interior."

Last month, more than 100 people including representatives of Six Nations of the Grand River, Mississaugas of the New Credit and Huron-Wendat First Nations gathered on the east bank of the Humber River in Etienne Brule Park for the official unveiling of the First Nations' Shared Path.

Shared Path bilingual plaques detail Humber River history that stretches from being an ancient Aboriginal portage route to modern roads and railways, from First Nations' settlements to 18th century French trading posts and the beginnings of French Toronto, and from the ruins of water-powered mills to the birth of industrial Toronto.

Plaques include text written in First Nations' languages.

"(The project) dealt with our concerns around recognition that our people were there, too; recognizing that there were three founding nations on the Humber River," said Carolyn King, former elected chief of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, referring to First Nations, French and English settlers.

"As First Nations' people we've had our spaces lost and taken over by earlier settlers. This project is in a public park and the entire trail is accessible. Any one of us can go there."

The Shared Path project includes a large fire pit along the river in Etienne Brule Park.

"Already, we're talking about going down there and having ceremonies at the fire pit," said King, noting First Nations' people cannot typically conduct fire ceremonies in Toronto due to regulations.

The Humber River was designated a Canadian Heritage River in 1999. It is the only Canadian Heritage River in the Greater Toronto Area and the only one in Canada on a subway stop (The Old Mill), Robertson said.

Heritage Toronto officials liaised with First Nations, as well as with Etobicoke Historical Society, Swansea Historical Society, Randall Reid, senior programs officer with Montgomery's Inn, and Etobicoke York Preservation Panel members Madeleine McDowell and Mary Louise Ashbourne on the project, and also conducted historical research and wrote the material that appears on the plaques.

Consulting firm Archaeological Services Inc. assisted with areas of archaeological significance, particularly to First Nations.

"One of the reasons why Toronto was established where it is is because the Humber River was a shortcut to Georgian Bay and militarily important," explained Gary Miedema, chief historian and associate director with Heritage Toronto.

"The portage route was established perhaps thousands of years ago. It's such a smart route it was picked up by the British and Yonge Street replaced it. There is an 11,000-year human history in this area."

Miedema said he hopes the Shared Path Discovery Walk helps residents appreciate who came before them.

"When people begin to understand what happened in the area where they live, it becomes storied. People think, 'I'm not the first to live here.' It creates some humility and respect for the area and for who lived here. It gives people a sense of rootedness, a sense of place. It's a fabulous corridor in which to tell a series of stories."

Huron-Wendat First Nations' Heather Bastien, in charge of the project for Ontario, expressed enthusiasm for the recognition of her people in the area. The Huron-Wendat First Nation now resides in Quebec.

"There are two stories in Canada: French history and English history. Natives have been forgotten. But we also have a rich history," she said.

"I'd like people to understand our history. We're not strangers. We've been there 15,000 years BC. We had a confederacy, a real government. People think we were savages. But we weren't."

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InsideToronto.com - http://www.insidetoronto.com/news/local/article/1236318--humber-path-honours-first-nations-history 

Studying old bones — preservation or perversion?

Mary Ormsby, Feature Writer, Toronto Star

A cross-border battle is brewing over 500-year-old bones belonging to some of Ontario’s original inhabitants — a case descendents describe as academic grave robbing.

The Huron-Wendat Nation is demanding that Louisiana State University return the “stolen” remains of about 200 people. They say researchers improperly gathered the bones from an Ontario ossuary to use for unauthorized student research.

“It’s a feeling of loss — and I get angry a little bit too because (remains) have no business being in universities or museums,” says retired translator Heather Bastien of Wendake, Que., whose prehistoric ancestors first hunted, fished and farmed in southern Ontario 15,000 years ago.

The unusual dispute raises questions about the best way for academics to be culturally sensitive — particularly when studying human remains — in a CSI generation that considers bones a DNA treasure trove of clues to scientific, historic, medical and, sometimes, criminal puzzles.

Bastien, 79, is a Wendake Council representative who has been active in asserting Huron-Wendat rights in Ontario. Some of those rights, outlined in a series of Supreme Court of Canada decisions, mean First Nations people must be consulted before development begins in historic areas that might reveal burial grounds. If Huron-Wendat burial ossuaries (mass bone repositories) are accidentally disturbed — as has happened around the GTA — the nation must be notified immediately.

Bastien says a long-held belief in Ontario that Huron-Wendat were “extinct” — the group migrated to Quebec 350 years ago — has meant few tried vigorously to find them after their graves were unearthed.

That may have happened 21 years ago.

Archaeologist Heather McKillop is the LSU professor who oversaw the excavation and eventual export of bones from the Poole-Rose ossuary near Cobourg to Baton Rouge, La., where she teaches. She was given permission to do so by the native community geographically closest to the ossuary, the Alderville First Nation, which is not Huron-Wendat.

McKillop could not be reached by the Star despite several attempts over the past two weeks and a spokesperson for LSU said the school would not be able to comment. However, McKillop and co-author Lawrence Jackson described the Poole-Rose ossuary as fitting the Huron’s centuries-old Feast of the Dead burial-pit pattern in their 1991 report in the Ontario Archeological Society’s newsletter.

McKillop, described as a Canadian/American academic who studied at Trent University, has overseen student research on the ossuary remains until at least last year.

It’s not uncommon for universities and museums to have old bones.

The University of Toronto, for instance, has thousands of First Nations bones, most of which are Huron-Wendat, from archeological digs from the 1940s through the 1970s. Several years of repatriation negotiations are nearing a conclusion but details are confidential, according to a university spokesperson.

Helen Robbins, a social anthropologist and repatriation director at the Chicago Field Museum, said a scientific middle ground might be reached more often if academics and indigenous people were more “open and honest” with each other.

“There can be benefits with indigenous people getting more access to museums, learning about museums as well as museums learning more about the tribe they have the human remains of — and may have been sitting there for 100 years,’’ says Robbins, who has no connection to the Huron-Wendat /LSU matter.

Prior to European contact, the Huron-Wendat population swelled to about 40,000. They lived in an area from the southern horn of Georgian Bay to the northerly shore of Lake Ontario, and from west of Toronto to Cornwall and Prescott in the east.

Diseases brought by white settlers, including smallpox, devastated the once-mighty confederacy in the 17th century. A group of native survivors eventually migrated to Quebec in the mid-1600s, in part to escape conflict with other nations.

Today, Bastien said there are 3,000 Huron-Wendat in Canada and about 6,000 in the United States.

The Poole-Rose ossuary was carbon dated to about 1550. In typical ancestral Huron practice, many skeletons were de-fleshed and dismembered post-mortem. The measurement and comparison of cut marks on severed bones were among the studies conducted by McKillop’s graduate students.

When the ossuary was discovered by building contractors in 1990, it appears provincial law for investigating an unmarked gravesite was followed.

For remains deemed very old and aboriginal, there are two choices under the Ontario Cemeteries Act: One is to contact the closest First Nations group, which in this case was the Alderville First Nation. The second option is to consult with the most likely people descended from the dead.

Alderville’s then-chief Nora Bothwell and her council gave McKillop permission to excavate, export and study the remains. Bothwell told the Star the bones were expected to be repatriated and that she hadn’t initially known the skeletons were Huron-Wendat.

But McKillop “was likely aware at that time, or ought to have been aware, that the skeletons were ancestral Huron-Wendat,” claims a Sept. 16 letter sent to McKillop, LSU chancellor Michael Martin and provincial Tourism and Culture Minister Michael Chan. It was sent by Toronto lawyer David Donnelly, who represents the Quebec-based nation.

The letter states “this removal and subsequent experimentation was done without consultation with the Huron-Wendat First Nation” and there is no agreement between the school and the nation to “perform these unethical experiments.”

In an interview, Donnelly called the Ontario Cemeteries Act “antiquated and racist.”

“The fact is that for sensitive cultural heritage matters, the Ontario Cemeteries Act still treats aboriginal nations as being all alike. A statute that literally says talking to the closest Indian will do is despicable and illegal.”

Bastien hopes LSU officials will deliver the ancestral bones to Canada so they — and restless Huron souls — can be “returned to the earth” with a calming traditional ritual. A smudging ceremony with tobacco and sage will be performed by elders. Remains are then interred with beaver pelts, artifacts and “the three sisters” — corn, beans and squash.

“It is a special ceremony to quiet their souls,’’ Bastien says. “They’ve been roaming around for so long with no place to stay.”

The Feast of the Dead

Ancient Huron-Wendat ossuaries can contain the remains of hundreds who were honoured by the Feast of the Dead, a socially and spiritually important celebration held every 10 to 12 years.

Bones of those who died over that period were removed from raised wooden structures where they were originally laid to rest and prepared for burial. Dried flesh was stripped from the bones and burned, with skeletons disarticulated (severed at joints) and placed on beaver pelts. The ritual also signalled a village was packing up to move to another area.

French Jesuit priest Jean de Brébeuf, who lived and worked among the Huron-Wendat in the 17th century, wrote a detailed, eyewitness account about the Feast of the Dead in 1636.

“The decision having been made, as all the bodies are to be transported to the Village where is the common grave, each family sees to its dead but with a care and affection that cannot be described,’’ wrote de Brébeuf, in part, according to Martyrs’ Shrine archivist Steve Catlin.

“If they have dead relatives in any part of the Country, they spare no trouble to go for them; they take them from the Cemeteries, bear them on their shoulders and cover them with the finest robes they have.”

The Huron-Wendat believe buried bones are sacred because a person’s soul rests with the remains, while a second soul soars skyward.

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Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1066828--studying-old-bones-preservation-or-perversion

Anishnawbe Health Toronto gets $1.5 million grant

Mary Ormsby, Feature Writer - Toronto Star

The Toronto aboriginal health-care group that forfeited a prized downtown site for a new clinic over concerns the land may be a Roman Catholic graveyard is now one step closer to building its dream facility.

Anishnawbe Health Toronto received approval Tuesday for a $1,485,000 provincial planning and design grant to consolidate its three GTA clinics into a single, iconic aboriginal structure.

The funds came from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

“We look forward to creating a legacy for our people,’’ said AHT’s executive director, Joe Hester, who’s desperate to replace two cramped clinics off Sherbourne St. and another on Vaughan Rd. with a facility where traditional healing and modern medicine will be practised in tandem.

“For us, it will have to be a home, and home has to be a place of beauty. Home has to be inviting. It’s a place for rest, respite, and it represents you as a person.”

Once a new downtown site has been selected — negotiations for locations are underway — and design bids have been tendered, it’s expected construction capital will be quickly forthcoming from the province.

The project will get input from aboriginal elders before a final design bid is chosen.

Hester said the grant announcement, made at AHT’s clinic across from the Moss Park Arena, was one of the few bright moments in a decade-long quest to better serve the 85,000 aboriginal men, women and children living in the GTA. It’s a group whose overall health is two to three times lower than that of the general Canadian population.

“It’s been like a long battle and now, we’re starting to realize victory,” said Hester.

“It’s really important for us as a people to be able to move forward with our agendas in terms of our needs.”

One of those needs is beauty. So the clinic won’t be another grey bunker amid the downtown condos. Think more Douglas Cardinal: flowing, welcoming, hugging nature.

“It’s not just (going to be) a health-care centre, it’s a place of refuge for our people,” said Jacques Huot, president of AHT’s board of directors, noting that spiritual wellness is a component of caring for physical ailments in native culture.

“Toronto can be an incredibly intimidating place for someone who has just left the reserve, who has left the beauty of Mother Nature and comes into this concrete jungle. So architectural beauty, if you want to call it that, is an important part of the healing process. (A building) is not just a functional thing, it’s an emotional thing as well.”

Cardinal had been approached previously by AHT about creating a one-of-a-kind aboriginal structure the city could enjoy as art.

The internationally renowned architect and Officer of the Order of Canada, who is of Métis and Blackfoot heritage, said working with “grassroots” people like AHT enables him to meld beauty and community service — a pairing he believes is too rare in society.

“Why shouldn’t these programs — and most programs that serve the public — be beautiful?” Cardinal said in a recent interview.

“This is an opportunity to create something that follows the values of the First Nations — creating beauty and harmony, which is an intrinsic part of their culture . . . There’s so much ugliness which adds to our social problems in our built environment, so if the First Nations want to do something about providing beauty and share that with the rest of the community, I think that’s a wonderful vision.”

In July, AHT was considering building at 51 Power St.. The group hired an architectural firm to draw preliminary sketches of a turtle-shaped, three-storey clinic with a sweat lodge.

But a phone call from Toronto Councillor Pam McConnell’s office warned AHT executives that the grassy wedge, located south of the Don Valley Parkway’s Richmond St. off ramp, near Parliament St., might contain human remains.

The lot is just metres southwest of St. Paul’s enormous 19th century cemetery, where about 3,000 people — possibly more — were interred, a third of them Irish typhus victims in 1847. One city official said old maps indicate the cemetery by the basilica was never fenced off, so the true graveyard boundaries are unknown.

Today, the area is an official City of Toronto off-leash dog park called Orphans Greenspace, where pets can relieve themselves.

The decision to leave human bones — and, more important, the souls of the dead — undisturbed is in keeping with native beliefs.

“That door closed on us and represented a bit of a fallback, but we had the determination to continue,” Hester said of walking away from the Power St. plot.

“But at the same time, it wasn’t a hard decision for us. It was the right decision, so we felt good about that. It was a mixed blessing.”

AHT is an accredited community health centre funded through the Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network, and is mandated by the Aboriginal Community of the Greater Toronto Area to deliver primary health care and traditional healing services.

Ontario has the most aboriginal people of all the provinces, with 242,490 (about 21 per cent) of the 1,172,785 Canadian total, according to figures in AHT’s recent board of directors report. The aboriginal population consists of three groups: status and non-status First Nations people, Métis and Inuit.

There’s a dramatic urban migration taking place within this population, with greater numbers leaving reserves in search of jobs, schooling and opportunity. About 78 per cent of all aboriginal people reside in rural and urban communities, up from about 50 per cent 10 years ago, according to AHT’s staff physician, Dr. Chandrakant Shah, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

Glen Murray, MPP for Toronto Centre, made the announcement Tuesday at the AHT clinic. The health group is also working with Build Toronto and Infrastructure Ontario to assess potential locations.

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URL: http://www.thestar.com/mobile/news/article/1047037--anishnawbe-health-toronto-gets-1-5-million-grant

Grave injustice: Aboriginal group decides not to build on possible Catholic graveyard

Mary Ormsby

Feature Writer, Toronto Star

 

Joe Hester, Executive Director of Anishnawbe Health Toronto, right, along with Dr. Chandrakant Shah, left, and Jacques Huot President of the Board Orphan's Greenspace .This small dog park on Power St. was a parcel of land the city was going to sell the Health Centre to build a new facility, but the deal fell through. The land in question is believed by some to contain hundreds of remains from an early grave site.

RICK EGLINTON/TORONTO STAR

A Toronto aboriginal health care group — desperate to find the perfect property for a new facility — is forfeiting a prized downtown piece of land on moral grounds because of concerns the land may be a Roman Catholic graveyard.

“The irony is not lost on us — due respect where none is given,” says Joe Hester, Anishnawbe Health Toronto’s executive director, noting business rarely halts when aboriginal remains are unearthed by bulldozers clearing ground for subdivisions and roads.

“I think often times, when (aboriginal) burial sites are found, there’s development already in progress and to a large degree, that development continues and our people are an after-thought. Here, we get some information and we respect that. It’s a burial site.”

The decision to leave the bones — and more importantly, the souls of the dead — undisturbed at 51 Power St. is in keeping with native beliefs. It also means another frustrating delay in a decade-long quest to better serve the 85,000 aboriginal men, women and children living in the GTA, a group whose overall health is two to three times lower than the general Canadian population.

Broken promises, empty “cheerleading” support pledges, lost files, government personnel shuffles, funding setbacks tied to changing application rules and an overall lack of political will to support the GTA’s only aboriginal primary care server has been crushing over the years, Hester says.

“It’s a depressing state to be in,’’ says Hester, a Cree with ancestral roots in the James Bay area.

AHT, which has spent more than $200,000 of its own money in responding to Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care requests for its new facility plans, is now considering its legal options.

“Forfeiting the Power St. site for moral reasons, regrettably, makes legal action more likely, either defending a compliance action or pressing a claim for land,” Toronto lawyer David Donnelly wrote in an email, describing the 51 Power St. situation as “stranger than fiction.”

AHT is an accredited community health centre funded through the Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network, mandated by the Aboriginal Community of the Greater Toronto Area to deliver primary health care and traditional healing services.

Care at the three AHT locations (two off Sherbourne St., one on Vaughan Rd.) to one day be amalgamated include: Use of western medicines; pre-and-post natal care; mental health services and child and youth dentistry. Client visits have grown by 8 per cent since 2009, with projected increases of 5 per cent annually — a growth Hester says AHT clinics cannot handle without a larger, state-of-the-art building.

Hester said his group was encouraged by Build Toronto, which handles the sale of surplus city properties, to seriously consider the Power St. property — but were unaware of the heavy historical burial use in that area. It’s a 1/3-hectare parcel south of the Don Valley Parkway’s Richmond St. off-ramp near Parliament St.

AHT was so interested in the site, it hired an architectural firm to draw preliminary sketches of a turtle-shaped, three-storey clinic with a sweat lodge, parking and outdoor landscaping. Douglas Cardinal, a world-renowned architect of Métis and Blackfoot heritage and an Officer of the Order of Canada, was on board to build it as an iconic aboriginal structure the city could enjoy as art.

However, a July 22 phone call from Toronto city councillor Pam McConnell’s office warned AHT executives that the grassy wedge may contain human remains.

The lot is just metres southwest of St. Paul Basilica’s enormous 19th century cemetery where about 3,000 people, possibly more, were interred by the basilica— a third of them Irish typhus victims from 1847, famine immigrants who may have been hastily buried in trenches, not coffins. It was Toronto’s first Catholic cemetery.

McConnell, on vacation, explains in an email that she learned about “the likelihood of remains at this site” from the city’s Heritage Preservation Services when part of that wedge of land was being considered for an off-leash dog park.

“This site sits just south of St. Paul’s church (at 83 Power St.), and early records indicate that the cemetery may have extended south. This is why the whole area is not for the dogs (a small chunk of 51 Power Street to the east is untouched) so as to protect the possible remains. St. Paul’s schoolyard likely has remains as does the land used for the (DVP) overpass,” McConnell writes.

The councillor said she’d request a full archeological review before contemplating any future construction on this site.

In the meantime, dogs romp freely. The fenced area at 51 Power St. is an official city of Toronto off-leash park called Orphans Greenspace where pets can relieve themselves in leafy comfort.

Build Toronto’s senior vice president of development, Don Logie, said there is no evidence human remains exist under the grassy parcel.

The Power St. plot passed initial mandatory archeological testing. When the dog park fence was being built, it also passed a study around the perimeter, monitored by an archaeologist, when fence posts were sunk in 125 centimetres of soil.

No bones were found when post holes were dug out, but one city official said it doesn’t mean the area is free of remains. Old maps indicate St. Paul’s cemetery was never fenced off so the true extent of graveyard boundaries, more than a century later, are unknown.

Ontario is home to the most aboriginal people in Canada, with 242,490 of the 1,172,785 total — about 21 per cent — living in this province, according to figures in the AHT’s recent board of directors report. The report was written by staff physician Dr. Chandrakant Shah, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

The country’s aboriginal population consists of three groups: Status and non-status First Nations people, Metis and Inuit. There’s also a dramatic demographic shift occurring within this population, with greater numbers leaving reserves in search of jobs, schooling and opportunity.

Shah writes that almost 78 per cent of all aboriginal people reside in rural and urban communities, up from about 50 per cent 10 years ago.

A key point: Provision of health care for aboriginal people living in First Nations territories is a federal responsibility. When they move out of their communities, it becomes a provincial matter — an increasing obligation with the rapid in-migration to urban centres.

Yet it’s an obligation Hester says provincial governments don’t understand, since the aboriginal “healing path” addresses the body, mind, spirit and emotion in harmony to restore an individual’s “identity.” Modern, non-native medicine does not take this holistic approach and doesn’t meet the needs of aboriginal patients, Shah said.

Shah writes in his report that aboriginal patients have complained about culturally insensitive health care they receive and at times, experience subtle and overt racism in non-native health care settings.

In the GTA, accommodating a burgeoning aboriginal population base with health care is hitting critical mass.

At Hester’s Queen and Sherbourne location, for instance, not all examination rooms have hand-washing sinks. The building’s computer server, which holds patients’ e-records, is jammed under a set of stairs — Harry Potter style — with no climate controls, protected only by fine wire mesh. The facility, across from Moss Park arena, is spotless. But as a clinic within a converted bank building, rooms are so cramped, specialists sit on examination tables, boxes and floors during consultation meetings.

AHT was identified as a priority for capital funding in a 2006 letter from then-deputy health minister Ron Sapsford. That money has not materialized, says Hester, whose group has been fundraising for years and don’t “come hat-in-hand” to the province.

A spokesperson from provincial health minister Deb Matthews’ office said AHT remains “a priority” for funding. The ministry is currently reviewing AHT’s July 8 proposal for capital assistance.

“The ministry plans to respond as soon as possible, within the month, in recognition of the fact (the fight for funding) has been a long process and that folks are looking for next steps on a really important project that absolutely is a priority,’’ says Matthews’ media aide Paris Meilleur.

Jacques Huot, president of AHT’s board of directors, is unimpressed.

“There’s no list, there’s no priority,’’ said Huot, who met with the ministry’s deputy minister Saad Rafi this week.

“We’ve been on a so-called priority list for six years. . .They keep telling us there’s no money available (and) we could be at this forever. Given the condition of our facilities, we just can’t afford to wait.”

In a July 26 letter to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, Huot wrote that he fears the cramped, outdated clinics will be shut down. He asked McGuinty to expedite the funding process.

“We fear that years of anecdotal information will lead to the conclusion that current conditions are untenable and that Anishnawbe Health Toronto run the risk of being the subject of a complaint, being cited by the (ministry) and closed,” Huot wrote.

“During an exhaustive 10-year search, we have identified several ideal sites but every time our efforts have been thwarted by the lack of a simple funding commitment by (the ministry). We’ve been assured this commitment is forthcoming but (it) never arrives.”

Huot added AHT was not originally slated for delivering health care services and now, it’s operating at levels of “unacceptable risk” in areas of infection prevention and control, patient privacy, patient safety and standards of confidentiality.

“This is very unfortunate,” says Shah, who’s worked at the Queen St. clinic for 15 years. “Good intentions are not good enough anymore. I want to see action. I’m 75 years old and before I go to my grave, I want to see action.”

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Toronto Star online: http://www.thestar.com/printarticle/1035491

Sacred and Secret: The GTA's hidden burial sites

Mary Ormsby, Feature Writer, Toronto Star Rick Hill watched the burial mound dispute in High Park last week with mild interest.

For 40 years, the Six Nations educator has been trying to teach scientists and non-natives to respect aboriginal history and beliefs. The High Park dispute is just another footnote in such work.

“Our people were everywhere. Therefore, you must expect to find their remains anywhere,'' says Hill, the coordinator of the Indigenous Knowledge Centre at Six Nations Polytechnic in Ohsweken, Ont.

“We have to pay respect to our ancestors. Hopefully, we are not desecrating their graves and not studying their remains to the point they become specimens.”

The High Park claim illuminated how much native history is underfoot in the GTA — and how little people know about a legacy that reaches back 12,000 years to the last ice age.

Even the native community squabbled over the precise location of an ancient burial site in High Park. One group called the claim by the Taiaiako'n Historical Preservation Society — that a 3,000-year-old section of the park contained human remains — a “hoax,” with science backing that position. An archeological study from 2009 found no bones or artifacts there.

The publicity surrounding the Taiaiako'n claim angered Huron-Wendat nation lawyer David Donnelly, who argues such maverick stands damage First Nations people trying to protect “legitimate sites.”

Part of the problem is there is no public blueprint pinpointing legitimate native settlements or grave sites.

“Nobody will give you a map,'' says Ron Williamson, chief archeologist at Toronto-based Archeological Services Inc., who works closely with First Nations officials.

He cites two factors for the secrecy: Fear of looting and vandalism, and Ontario government rules that limits the release of sensitive information. The Ministry of Tourism and Culture determines policies and programs related to the provincial interest in conserving, protecting and promoting Ontario's heritage.

Archeologists have reported 76 combined burial sites for aboriginal and Euro-Canadian remains within the GTA to the Ministry of Tourism and Culture. That includes graves, cemeteries, ossuaries and burial grounds. The exact breakdown between native and non-native sites is unknown, although Williamson said 20 ossuaries (repositories of bones of the dead) have been discovered in the GTA. He said trophy hunters from the 19th century and on emptied many of them. Provincial protections enacted in the 1970s and '80s helped preserve archaeological pursuits.

The ministry notes that in Ontario 80 per cent of all archeological sites are aboriginal, including villages, longhouses, hunting camps, portage areas and artifacts like pottery shards, arrow and spear points. It also says artifacts like human remains should be treated with “utmost respect and dignity.”

Lonny Bomberry, the director of the Six Nations lands and resources department in Ohsweken, says grave robbing has been a painful fact of life — and death — for generations.

“There are people out there who, when they know about an archeological site where native people once lived for long periods of time and that there will be lots of artifacts, they'll just go and dig around.

“What's happened in the past is a lot of these bones ended up in museums . . . . First Nations peoples' bones were just kept there for display. A lot of times (the bones) were eventually returned but that's the mindset that existed.”

First Nations people generally believe a person is created with two spirits. Upon death, the souls split, with one resting with the buried remains. That's why, says Hill, physical disturbance of bones is a source of deep anguish.

“One spirit goes back to the sky world where we believe The Creator lives, the other — the one that gives you your personality — tends to linger in a comfortable place,'' the 60-year-old explains.

“We have ceremonies by which that spirit finds its resting place. But when their remains are unearthed, it's like calling (the spirit) back from a deep sleep. Then something has to be done to make that right again.”

Hill says “our connection to the soil is profound” and unmolested graves are necessary for strong spiritual bonds to remain intact over generations.

“Think of it as a recycling that goes on from the earth to beyond the sky and back to the earth and through women, so when a child is born, their spirit has a long, long, long, long life in the universe — and (the cycle) will continue after they are gone too.

“That creates a stability across time.”

There was not much dignity or stability when the Moatfield ossuary was accidentally uncovered in 1997 near Leslie and the 401. During the expansion of a soccer field, the bones of about 90 people were found when a fence post was driven into the very centre of the ossuary.

“The problem is work often goes ahead without any thought to the history of the place,'' says Williamson, who co-wrote Bones of the Ancestors: The Archaeology and Osteobiography of the Moatfield Ossuary.

“So this fence post gets placed, the First Nations come out, they look at this and this term was used: ‘This pierced the souls of the people here.' ”

The elders decided to relocate the ossuary rather than keep it under a busy park. Williamson was part of the crew that moved each bone individually to a secret location in the general area of the original grave site.

“You'll just have to take my word for it — they'll never be disturbed again,” the archeologist says.

Every year, after the snow melts and the land warms, more evidence of prehistoric aboriginal life is found. Hill ponders his ancestral connection to the land and wonders if the dead, by being uncovered, are trying to warn the living about a lost connection to nature.

“What we realize every summer, every time there's construction, the remains of aboriginal people come to the surface and you might want to say, metaphorically, maybe they are trying to tell us something.

“Maybe it's a reminder of who was here first, who lived well on this land for 30,000 years and who now is looking to say ‘If we continue the way we're going, nobody's going to be able to live well on this land.'

“Where there used to cornfields, there are subdivisions with no gardens. To me, it's kind of prophetic.”

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Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com/news/article/995296--sacred-and-secret-the-gta-s-hidden-burial-sites

Iroquoian mounds at High Park a ‘hoax,' aboriginal group charges

Katie Daubs, Toronto Star Some 3,000 years ago, aboriginals came through High Park following the migration patterns of animals. That much is true. The exact details — those are a bit murky.

In April, David Redwolf, executive director of the Taiaiako’n Historical Preservation Society who also goes by the name Rastia’ta’non:ha, told a news conference that a section of High Park contained ancient Iroquoian burial mounds dating back 3,000 years.

“We followed where the food was, from the seasons,” said Laurie Waters, associate director of the same society. “Those that didn’t make those journeys didn’t have a place to rest. We laid them to rest in places in line with the constellations, so we knew where to find them.”

Although many groups had migrated through the area 3,000 years ago, Waters said she was speaking on behalf of hereditary chief Arnold General and the clan mothers of the Six Nations Confederacy, an Iroquois group.

David Donnelly, lawyer for the Huron-Wendat Nation, calls the notion of an Iroquoian burial site a “hoax.”

“This does real damage to the First Nations people trying to protect legitimate sites,” he said.

But Waters said stories of the pit burials were passed down orally, and now she is part of a group urging the city to protect what they call sacred mounds from BMX bikers.

Donnelly takes historical issue with that. “Firstly, Iroquoian people did not bury their dead in mounds.” he said.

“Second, Iroquoian people did not exist in southern Ontario 3,000 years ago, Thirdly, if you were to find a mass burial in the GTA, it could only be Huron-Wendat, and therefore only the Huron-Wendat nation is authorized to speak on its behalf about its position and what happens to it,” he said.

Waters said Donnelly, who has done research on behalf of the Huron-Wendat for more than a decade, “is a non-native individual getting his information from various sources.”

City spokeswoman Margaret Dougherty said a 2009 study determined the High Park bike site had no archeological significance or human remains. The Taiaiako’n Historical Preservation Society rejected that study.

Dougherty said other First Nations groups — the Huron-Wendat, the Six Nations of Grand River, Kawartha Nishnawbe, and the Mississauga of the New Credit — have written the city to say that Redwolf does not represent their interests or have the authority to speak or act on their behalf.

Ronald Williamson, an archeologist whose firm completed the 2009 study, said most archeologists believe that Iroquoian-speaking people first entered the Great Lakes region 2,000 years ago, likely with the arrival of corn.

Williamson said the Iroquois from New York state moved into the region in 1650, dispersing the Ontario Iroquoian-speaking groups. They were then forced out by the Ojibwe during the 1690s, and returned to inhabit the Grand River Valley in 1780 as a reward for their loyalty to the Crown during the American Revolution.

The time period Waters claims Iroquois burial mounds were created coincides with the time Algonquian-speaking bands were roaming through the Great Lakes region, Williamson said.

He said Algonquian-speaking groups did create burial mounds in the Peterborough area about 1,500 to 3,000 years ago, but “they’re quite different than natural hills that are formed when the glaciers retreated.”

Lonny Bomberry, director of the Six Nations lands and resources department, said history gets “pretty murky” when you go beyond 1,000 years.

Bomberry said First Nations people clearly inhabited the GTA 3,000 years ago, but “we can’t say definitely which linguistic group was in possession of what part of North America.”

Paul General, manager of the Eco Centre at Six Nations, didn’t feel comfortable weighing in.

“You have experts who have been looking at it for many years who say no, a lot of people who say yes, and unfortunately, definitive evidence one way or another is difficult to say,” he said.

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Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com/mobile/gta/article/992985

New rules will help preserve archeological sites

GARY MAYGlobe and Mail

Imagine developers being told they can build a high-rise condominium overtop Pompeii, or a subdivision above the tomb of King Tutankhamen.

It’s an outrageous thought, yet the destruction of important archaeological sites has occurred time and again across Ontario, say archaeologists and aboriginal groups. Advocates for the preservation of such sites hope standards and guidelines that take effect on Jan. 1 will help to stem thedestruction of more such examples of the province’s historical and prehistoric culture.

But the president of the Ontario Association of Professional Archaeologists warns that the flip-side of the regulations will likely mean it becomes prohibitively expensive for smaller developers to proceed with projects at sites that are suspected of containing important artifacts from past societies.

Scarlet Janusas, a Tobermory, Ont.-based archaeologist, predicted the provincial culture ministry regulations could force developers to shell out 300 per cent more for archaeological studies at some locations to determine the heritage value of a property.

She said if a developer can afford to pay the bill, they’ll pass the expense on to buyers.

Meanwhile, Joe Vaccaro, vice-president of government relations for the Toronto-area Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), said development proponents are frustrated by such increasingly costly regulations.

While the cost of archaeological assessment varies according to the size and significance of the site, it’s not unusual for developers to run up bills of several hundred thousand dollars when detailed studies are required under current regulations.

Implementation of the new regulations will come more than three years after the Ipperwash inquiry reported that an estimated 8,000 sites were destroyed between 1951 and 1991 in the Greater Toronto Area alone – one-quarter of which likely merited archaeological investigation.

Archaeologists excavate the site of a proposed housing project at Young Cove near Cobourg, Ont. After the dig, some areas were deemed off-limits for development.— Photos courtesy Advance Archaeology

Toronto lawyer David Donnelly represents the Huron-Wendat First Nation in Ontario and said the province has been shamefully slow to stop that destruction. Mr. Donnelly said the Ontario Planning Act, for example, is “racist and unconstitutional” in its lack of consideration for aboriginal rights.

“It’s ridiculous that [utilities such as] Rogers Cable must be notified of an excavation, but not the First Nations people.”

That will change once the province enforces the tougher standards and guidelines that direct the work of professional archaeologists who must be called in whenever a question arises over a site’s archaeological significance.

Ms. Janusas said the new regulations will require more detailed analysis of significant sites and will certainly cause further delays for developers.

One site where the new rules would have had an impact is a soybean field in the City of Vaughan north of Toronto. The field is the site of what Mr. Donnelly calls “a capital city” of a First Nations society that existed at the dawn of aboriginal-European contact.

Skandatut, as the site is known, is thought to have been a two-hectare, late 16th-century Huron village that sat on a tributary of the Humber River, a place that once supported 100 longhouses and was home to 2,000 or more people. The site is now privately owned and the owner wants to build 204 single-family homes there as part of a larger 1,200-unit community.

Archaeologists declared the site nationally significant in 2006.

Skandatut “holds the key to unlocking many of the mysteries of the aboriginal peoples of Ontario,” said Mr. Donnelly. “To allow work to proceed on this site could be a catastrophe and a national disgrace.”

Yet the lawyer for the developer said his client has followed all the province’s rules. “My client has been unfairly maligned over all of this,” said John Alati. He said Joseph Pandolfo advised the former Huron-Wendat chief “two or three years ago” of his plans.

Under Ontario regulations dating back to 1993, developers of archaeologically significance sites must hire a certified archaeologist to conduct an assessment. The assessment, which begins by reviewing what is already known about the site, can proceed through four stages if it is found to be important enough. At any time during the process, if human remains are discovered, work must stop immediately.

If a licensed archaeologist determines a Stage 4 assessment is required, the archaeologist advises how to remove significant artifacts and whether long-term protection strategies are necessary.

Mr. Pandolfo followed the province’s rules and hired an archaeological firm to undertake a detailed study. But the old regulations never stated that the affected First Nation be advised and consulted during the assessment. The Stage 4 excavation got under way in June, without the Huron-Wendats’ knowledge. Their Ontario spokesman, Luc Lainé, said they only learned of the work by accident.

Fearful that another significant Huron-Wendat site could be destroyed, they wrote to Premier Dalton McGuinty and obtained the support of the Assembly of First Nations, the Ontario Archaeological Society and Dr. David Suzuki, then threatened court action. Last month, the province issued a stop-work order on the excavation, giving the Huron-Wendat six months to come up with a plan to preserve it.

“I hope we can work with Mr. Pandolfo to resolve this,” Mr. Lainé said. But, he added, it should never have reached this point, since the Supreme Court of Canada has already ruled in other cases that First Nations must be consulted when their interests are at stake, and their views considered in any resolution.

Bone tools unearthed at a housing site near Stouffeville, north of Toronto. — Photo courtesy Advance Archaeology

Come Jan. 1, First Nations would have to be advised and consulted in a similar situation.

But Mr. Lainé said that, with perhaps 100 such projects on their plate right now, the Huron-Wendat lack the resources to provide meaningful input into every one of them. They can only select the most important, and he said Skandatut falls into that category.

At other sites, they have had to waive their right to investigate. In some cases, they’ve been aided by other First Nations groups.

That happened at The Narrows in Orillia, when the Rama Ojibwa stepped in after artifacts and human remains were discovered at a luxury high-rise condominium construction site.

“They came in and performed a ceremony,” said developer Mike Bowering of Mutual Gain Corp. “They blessed the spirits and thanked us for our co-operation, and then were on their way.”

But the Orillia site was a Huron-Wendat community, said Mr. Lainé, and had they had the resources, they would have been involved.

If a Stage 4 assessment finds that site protection isn’t an option, the archeologist consultant documents and directs removal of the artifacts before construction may begin. Mr. Alati said his client hopes negotiations can result in resumption of the assessment. He estimated Mr. Pandolfo has already spent $80,000 on Stage 4 alone.

Mr. Lainé said he hopes the village site “will not be disturbed. Let it remain as it is. It could even become an interpretation centre [for the Huron-Wendat culture] some day.”

The case has sent chills through the development community, however, and they’re bracing for what’s to come.

Mr. Vaccaro of BILD said the association of builders and developers has been advised that the stricter provincial regulations “will result in significant costs” to developers, as well as building delays and frustration.

As to whether the regulations will result in developers walking away www.wupoint.com from projects, Mr. Vaccaro said the industry is “much more sophisticated” in identifying potential stumbling blocks than it has been in the past.

Ms. Janusas is “encouraged” by the regulations, which she said should bring consistency to the review process. Government reviewers interpreted the old rules in different ways, she said.

Mr. Donnelly called the changes “an important step” in improving consultation. Added Mr. Lainé: “We’re happy that we must be notified, but what we want is a promise to protect our sacred sites, and that is not there.”

As an indication of how important the guidelines are, Ronald Williamson, chief archaeologist and managing partner for Archaeological Services Inc. of Toronto, pointed out that Eastern Canada has experienced three major flashpoints over land claims in recent decades – Oka, Ipperwash and Caledonia – and in all of them, “the catalysts were sacred site issues.”

Meanwhile, some developers have not only welcomed these archaeological studies, they’ve ended up incorporating their site’s history into their projects. One is Lloyd Jones, a Cobourg, Ont., businessman who partnered with Belleville builder Jamie Brauer on the Prince Edward Estates at Young Cove project in Quinte West, located at a site that was an important portage route for First Nations people and early European settlers.

“I never had any concerns that the archeological findings would be detrimental to our plans,” Mr. Jones said. “Frankly, I was thrilled by the history of the place. I find it intriguing to think that people have been there for so long.”

The archaeologist’s report required him to keep two areas off-limits from development, so they will be left for use by archeologists-in-training as teaching sites, Mr. Jones said.

He said many who have reserved homes at Young Cove (construction has not yet begun) were intrigued to learn the history of their new community. Now, he plans to make that history a feature of the community, with a parade square and a replica of the original blockhouse, called Fort Kente, which sat on the site. He plans an interpretive centre he hopes can display artifacts obtained from the site.

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Globe and Mail Online: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/new-rules-will-help-preserve-archeological-sites/article1804183/page1/

Donnelly Law Comments on Provincial Policy Statement, 2005

Re: Provincial Policy Statement Five-Year Review (EBR Registry No. : 010-9766) We write to provide comments with respect to the above-noted Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR) posting.

Introduction

Donnelly Law practices land use planning, environmental and First Nations law; we represent the Huron-Wendat Nation’s cultural interests in the Province of Ontario. This work is centred on how land use planning and development impacts the Huron-Wendat’s culture and heritage, in particular the destruction of Huron-Wendat Nation burial sites and artifacts.

It is our belief that additional preventative measures must be adopted by individuals, developers and municipalities to prevent further destruction of Aboriginal heritage in Ontario. It is, therefore, crucial that the Provincial Policy Statement, the Province’s foundational land use planning instrument, include safeguards to protect Aboriginal interests in Ontario.

Background and Historical Context

Huron-Wendat Nation

The ancestors of the Huron-Wendat Nation occupied a large portion of southern Ontario for many centuries until A.D.1648.  At this time the Huron-Wendat Nation was forced to leave its territory due to many successive deadly epidemics brought by Europeans, as well as disputes and wars with other First Nations. The Huron-Wendat, archaeologists and historians have identified and documented hundreds of Huron-Wendat sites in Ontario. Dozens of large semi-permanent agricultural cosmopolitan villages (occupied by thousands of people) and their attendant burial sites have been discovered, representing a rich cultural heritage legacy.

The Wendake community (Huron-Wendat Nation) is located about 10 kilometres north of downtown Québec City. It is the only Huron-Wendat Nation in Canada. The number of members is 2,994, of which 1,299 reside on the Wendake territory. The Huron-Wendat Nation is concerned about the potential impact of future development on their ossuaries, cemeteries and occupation sites.

Aboriginal Interests Throughout Ontario

The Huron-Wendat Nation, our client, is not the only Aboriginal community affected by Ontario’s rapid development.  All Aboriginal people that ever occupied lands in the Province have a rich legacy that is under constant threat.

Hunter-gatherers occupied most of Ontario since 2,000 B.C. By 1500 B.C.-1000 B.C., elaborate mortuary ceremonial practices developed, suggesting strong social and community identities. Evidence of large burial mounds exists for southern Ontario populations circa 400 B.C.-A.D. 700 and circa 400 B.C.-A.D. 1650 in northwestern Ontario. After 700 A.D., the practice of forming burial mounds ceased and was replaced with ossuaries, which began around 1300 A.D.

Ossuaries, an Iroquoian burial practice, is “a burial pit containing a mixed deposit of the remains of multiple individuals, which was formed as the result of final burial ceremonies, triggered by events, such as village relocation, the death of a leader, or the reformulation of inter-village alliances. The remains that were incorporated within the ossuary had, for the most part originally been interred elsewhere and were exhumed for inclusion in the ossuary feature. Therefore, the majority of the bones in the ossuary are disarticulated.”[1] Ossuaries are not visible above the land, making identification pre-excavation extremely difficult. Coupled with insensitive planning and development, thousands of culturally significant sites have been destroyed.

Destruction of Aboriginal Sites in Ontario

According to the Ipperwash Sacred Artifacts Report:

Rapid development within the Regional Municipalities of Halton, Durham, Peel and York provides an instructive example of the nature and potential magnitude of the threat that continued landscape change may pose to a finite and non-renewable archaeological resource base. It is possible that some 8,000 sites were destroyed in this area between 1951 and 1991, with the majority of this destruction occurring prior to 1971 … It is  further estimated that approximately 25% of these sites (approximately 2,000) represented significant archaeological resources that merited some degree of  archaeological investigation, since they could have contributed meaningfully to our understanding of the past, or outright protection as they constituted culturally significant places for the First Nation descendents of the people who created them in the first place.  (at page 4)

Culturally important lands are not limited to burial sites. The significance attached to a specific location is influenced by a number of factors, determined by the original inhabitants and their descendants. There may be times that these locations require protection, but their identification may be complicated.

Our recommendations are intended to provide practical guidance while simultaneously recognizing the complexity of identifying culturally significant sites to Aboriginal people.  For this reason, consultation and accommodation – foundations of reconciling Canada’s legal regime with Aboriginal rights and interests – must always be at the forefront of all land use planning and development in Ontario. The recommendations we make in this submission are consistent with the recommendations made by the Ipperwash Inquiry.

Recommendations

Conflicts between Ontario’s Aboriginal peoples and land use planning are not new, especially concerning burial grounds. With the 1995 Ipperwash crisis, it would be impossible to deny knowledge that the impact of development has on Aboriginal burial sites. At page 686 of the Ipperwash Inquiry, it is stated that:

The provincial government and other institutions must redouble their efforts to build successful,  peaceful relations with Aboriginal peoples in Ontario so that we can all live together peacefully  and productively.

The Inquiry continued, at page 687:

Usually, the immediate catalyst for most major occupations and protests is a dispute over a land claim, a burial site, resource development, or harvesting, hunting, and fishing rights. The fundamental conflict, however, is about land.

Including a provision to protect Aboriginal heritage in the Provincial Policy Statement is exactly the type of step the Inquiry is speaking to.

The policy recommendations of the Ipperwash Inquiry included a considerable focus on ensuring cultural and heritage claims are protected. Among these recommendations are:

• The provincial government should work with First Nations and Métis organizations to develop policies regarding how the government can meet its duty to consult and accommodate. The duty to consult and accommodate should eventually be incorporated into provincial legislation, regulations, and other relevant government policies as appropriate (Recommendation 14, emphasis added);

• The provincial government should promote respect and understanding of the duty to consult and accommodate within relevant provincial agencies and Ontario municipalities (Recommendation 15);

• The provincial government should work with First Nations and Aboriginal organizations to develop policies that acknowledge the uniqueness of Aboriginal burial and heritage sites, ensure that First Nations are aware of decisions affecting Aboriginal burial and heritage sites, and promote First Nations participation in decision-making. These rules and policies should eventually be incorporated into provincial legislation, regulations, and other government policies as appropriate (Recommendation 22);

• The provincial government, in consultation with First Nations and Aboriginal organizations, should determine the most effective means of advising First Nations and Aboriginal peoples of plans to excavate Aboriginal burial or heritage sites (Recommendation 25);

• The provincial government should encourage municipalities to develop and use archaeological master plans across the province (Recommendation 26)

With the release of the Inquiry only in 2007, these recommendations were not considered in the last Provincial Policy Statement Review. It is essential that the Provincial Policy Statement be revised to include these recommendations and provide the necessary protection of Aboriginal culture and heritage.

In recognition of the importance of protecting aboriginal interests in Ontario, with specific consideration given to the Ipperwash Inquiry, precedent established by the Milroy private prosecution, and dicta of the court in the Hiawatha decision, we recommend ensuring the Provincial Policy Statement recognizes the current state of the law in Ontario, with explicit reference to the connection between Aboriginal rights, the Constitution of Canada, Supreme Court rulings that require protection of cultural heritage, including how its protection pertains to landscapes and land use.  The current PPS does not reflect the important connection between landscapes to Aboriginal culture.

Section 2.0: Wise Use and Management of Resources states:

Ontario's long-term prosperity, environmental health, and social well-being depend on  protecting natural heritage, water, agricultural, mineral and cultural heritage and archaeological resources for their economic, environmental and social benefits.

In order to achieve the above stated goal, two major changes must be made to the Provincial Policy Statement’s section on Wise Use and Management of Resources:

First, Section 2.6 Cultural Heritage and Archaeology must explicitly address Aboriginal  interests, and

Second, a new section on Aboriginal interests must be created.

To ensure Section 2.6 Cultural Heritage and Archaeology explicitly addresses Aboriginal interests, we recommend the following:

1. “Built heritage resources” and “Cultural heritage landscape”: The definitions of “built heritage resources” and “cultural heritage landscape” must include both pre and post-contact sites and should include in the non-exhaustive list of examples of resources (in the case of “built heritage resources) or landscapes (in the case of “cultural heritage landscapes”) those that may be significant to an Aboriginal community.
2. “Archaeological resources”: The definition of “archaeological resources” must include Aboriginal sites or burial grounds.
3. “Aboriginal interest”: A new definition must be included for “Aboriginal interest”, which includes impacts on aboriginal archaeological heritage and landscapes (Milroy and Hiawatha).
4. Aboriginal engagement: Section 2.6.2 must state that in cases where “development and site alteration” impacts a site of Aboriginal origin, before development or alteration can proceed the party is responsible for engaging the Aboriginal community culturally affiliated with the site.

A new section must address the concerns and recommendations made by the Ipperwash Inquiry, recent court decisions and recent land use conflicts with Aboriginal interests. Accordingly, in addition to the modifications to Section 2.6, we recommend the new Provincial Policy Statement include a new section within Section 2.0: Wise Use and Management of Resources. This requires:

A new sub-section (2.7) entitled, “Aboriginal Significant Cultural Heritage and Burial Sites”

This new sub-section shall ensure that

1. Any action that falls within the Provincial Policy Statement shall be required to consult and accommodate Aboriginal communities whenever the action impacts an Aboriginal interest.

Considering the special nature of Aboriginal burial grounds, it is essential that the new Provincial Policy Statement address this issue specifically. Therefore, this new sub-section must also ensure the following:

2. When an Aboriginal burial ground or sacred site may be impacted, no development, alteration or excavation may occur until meaningful consultation and accommodation is conducted with the Aboriginal community whose interest is affected;

Finally, it is key that municipalities throughout the Province adopt archaeological management plans. The third sub-section we recommend is:

3. Municipalities must develop and use archaeological management plans that ensure development does not occur where there is likely an Aboriginal burial, cultural or heritage site.

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[1] Ipperwash Sacred Artifacts Report: Aboriginal Burial and Other Sacred Sites in Ontario (Prepared for Founding First Nations Circle) December 2005, at page 11.