Diabo meets with ministers

Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) grand chief Cody Diabo said productive meetings were had with federal ministers in Ottawa earlier this month - though Canadian prime minister Mark Carney was unable to make time to meet during Diabo’s visit.

Diabo had hoped that Carney’s office might carve out time for a meeting during his trip at the start of May, but ultimately, no time was scheduled.

“I wasn’t holding my breath that we were going to meet, but he was in Ottawa, I think that some time could have been allocated,” Diabo said. “We’ll continue to keep trying. We’ve got a contact within his team now, so I’ll keep pushing for that opportunity to meet.”

Diabo did meet with minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Rebecca Alty, as well as minister of Indigenous Services Canada Mandy Gull-Masty and minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree.

He also met with representatives from Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, to discuss the Jay Treaty Border Alliance (JTBA) and furthering the rights of community members at the Canada-US border.

He had previously met with federal representatives at the JTBA High Table in April, where he emphasized the need to push ahead with recognizing the rights of First Nations to cross the border freely. Right now, the US recognizes the right of Canadian-born First Nations people to cross their border, but Canada doesn’t formally recognize the Jay Treaty, making it more difficult for US-born Indigenous individuals to enter Canada.

“We want to support and push and make sure there’s a better path forward with the removal of blood quantum aspects and Canada recognizing the Jay Treaty,” Diabo said. “We have to advocate and push that changes are made on Canada’s end.”

While in Ottawa, Diabo also attended Iroquois Caucus meetings - there, the group discussed putting forward a protocol agreement with the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), which is expected to be made official in July.

That agreement, Diabo said, would aim to ensure AFN leadership understands the organization’s role as an advocacy organization and the Caucus’s independent role outside of the AFN.

“Hopefully that gets unveiled and proceeds according to plan. AFN is ready, they suggested to do it at the assembly to make it official, and we’re hoping to generate a lot of buzz around it,” he said.

Also discussed were updates on the Iroquois Caucus Harvesting Working Group Summit and the proposed alliance with the Atikamekw Nation - Diabo said those are ongoing discussions, with more information to come from future meetings.

“We’re building up the Iroquois Caucus for sure now, we have full-time and part-time staff members now and we’re really trying to put some structure to it,” Diabo said. “It went really well, and we’re keeping pushing.”

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