A burning injustice

In the 1980s, when Big Mac boxes were still chewing a hole in the ozone layer, women of the 207 Longhouse stood up to the trucks treating Kahnawake as a garbage dump, an important moment in the beginnings of what would become the Kahnawake Environment Protection Office (KEPO).

There aren’t many communities of Kahnawake’s size that have a full-fledged environment department, but that hasn’t stopped KEPO from growing into a regional leader when it comes to studying the impact of human activities to plant life, to fish, and other animals.

That particular battle against dumping wasn’t the first or last fight on behalf of Mother Earth in Kahnawake. After all, her protection is a teaching that extends to time immemorial, long before anyone ever heard of single-use plastics or gasoline engines.

So many Kanien’kehá:ka ceremonies and traditional ways revolve around the seasons, the harvests, the medicines all around us. And there’s a reason that raising children to speak our language comes hand in hand with imparting words they can use to describe the natural world as they learn to appreciate it.

Unfortunately, colonial society didn’t learn to protect the environment, but instead how to justify bending it to their will. After all, nobody can plead ignorance on this one, so it’s a lack of care and not a lack of knowledge that is to blame.

In the 1980s, human-driven climate change was already an established fact. But while back then, Kahnawake was part of a growing chorus of voices demanding change, that chorus never grew loud enough to drown out the industries that profit off the destruction of the planet.

Those alive in the 1980s, or even the 2010s, will recall that massive plumes of wildfire smoke descending on Tiohtià:ke every summer isn’t normal, or at least it’s not supposed to be.

But here we are, not rushing to the store to pick up an air purifier, but simply grabbing one from the closet, closing our windows, and waiting for another day.

What’s so maddening is that catastrophic climate change has been predictable for many years, and while Canada-at-large has mostly opted to pretend it doesn’t exist, thinking it wouldn’t affect them, Onkwehón:we have been persistent in sounding the alarm.

But now, as fires tear through northern Ontario, it’s Onkwehón:we who are bearing the brunt as searing temperatures fuel the destruction of swaths of forest on Turtle Island.

Several northern Ontario First Nations have been forced to evacuate their territories, with Namaygoosisagagun First Nation, also known as Collins First Nation, being completely destroyed, almost in the blink of an eye.

Short-sighted colonial thinking is the reason the world is now mired in climate change quicksand, with lofty words still in the driver’s seat as what limited actions have been taken, like hastening the transition to electric vehicles, are delayed and deferred in the name of economic growth. It’s unjust on so many levels.

Let’s count the ways. First, the most obvious, that the government runs roughshod over Indigenous communities like it owns the place. Pipelines from coast to coast? No problem, we’ll just ask First Nations what they think (or not) and then build them anyway. Power plants? Highways? Mines? Shipping lanes? Same old story.

In fact, as we’ve often written about lately, this tendency is only set to get even worse, with the Building Canada Act prioritizing an urgency to build over a duty to consult, an obligation that is outlined in Canada’s own constitution, not to mention the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Then there’s the obvious lack of emergency preparedness. In Ontario, Doug Ford’s government was accused of cutting the firefighting budget, with much less budgeted for this year than was spent last year. He says “no expense is being spared” to help those affected by this disaster. We hope that means rebuilding Namaygoosisagagun First Nation, for one, but we doubt it.

In fact, the government has been accused of failing to step in and provide evacuation and emergency supports to the Ojibway people of Namaygoosisagagun First Nation, who have status, apparently because the community itself is not administratively categorized as a First Nation, even as it has been seeking this designation for decades.

In any case, the government owes the communities that have had to flee a lot more than what they’re getting right now; these latest wildfires will exit the news cycle as quickly as they roared in, the media’s interest being dictated by how fast smoke dissipates in Toronto and Montreal.

But there is nothing short-term about the needs of those who have had to abandon their homes and worldly possessions.

Even if you were to take premier Ford at his word - which you shouldn’t, given the lack of outreach to Indigenous leaders - this strategy of treating the symptom and not the cause is one that is sure to fail.

Sparing no expense means turning Canada from an environmental laggard into an environmental leader, which ought to incorporate Indigenous leadership - after all, Onkwehón:we have always been the stewards of these lands and waters. And it means supporting First Nations by funding homegrown solutions.

Meanwhile, prime minister Mark Carney, who is currently leading the charge on building first and asking questions later, observed that fighting climate change is the responsibility of all countries, which is true, but his statement hardly qualified as taking responsibility.

That rejoinder was said in response to US president Donald Trump, who joined the wave of mind-numbing complaints about Canada sending smoke into US airspace by threatening tariffs (what else), ignoring America’s Leonardo DiCaprio-sized starring role in destroying the planet.

Putting out fires is great, but easier said than done, and it seems pretty obvious that the government was caught flatfooted on this one. But the only real remedy - prevention - takes courage, because it’s not as simple as Smokey the Bear would have you believe. It means putting tomorrow ahead of today, not something colonial culture is very adept at doing.

Yet here in Kahnawake, and in Kanesatake, and in Indigenous communities everywhere, grassroots efforts are being made to rally around the communities who have been victimized by the latest environmental catastrophe.

But of course, we now live in a state of perpetual environmental catastrophe, where sepia skies are just another summer’s day. Will the governments of Canada spare no expense? Or will they continue to sit back and watch their chickens come home to roost, at the expense of First Nations, and, sooner or later, every living and breathing being, including those in the ranks of government and Fortune 500 boardrooms?

The generations to come deserve better.

Marcus Bankuti, Managing Editor

Steve Bonspiel, Editor/Publisher